UC-NRLF 


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j   1*3  O^5  LEWIS  AND  CLARK  CENTENNIAL  EXPOSITION 

PORTLAND,  OREGON,  JUNE  TO  OCTOBER,  1905 

H.  W.  GOODE.  President  H,  E.  REED,  Secretary 


PROGRAM,  ORGANIZATION  and  ADDRESSES 


Lewis  and  Clark 
Educational  Congress 


AUG.  28  TO  SEPT.  2,  1905 

AUDITORIUM   OF  THE   EXPOSITION 

Portland,  Oregon,  U.  S.  A. 


LEWIS  AND  CLARK  CENTENNIAL  EXPOSITION 

PORTLAND,  OREGON,  JUNE  TO  OCTOBER,  1905 

H.  W.  GOODE,  President  -      H,  E.  REED,  Secretary 


PROGRAM,   ORGANIZATION  AND  ADDRESSES 


Lewis  and  Clark 
Educational  Congress 


AUG.  28  TO  SEPT.  2,  1905 

AUDITORIUM   OF   THE  \EXPQS-TION 

Portland,  Oregon,  U.  3:  A\ 


Auspices  Lewis  and   Clark   Congresses  Committee  and  a  Committee  of 
Pacific  Northwest   Educators 


V-G 


Presses  of 

ANDERSON  &  DUNIWAY  Co. 
Portland,   Oregon 


preface 

The  Lewis  and  Clark  Educational  Congress  was  held  August 
28  to  September  2,  1905,  mornings,  from  9  to  12,  in  the  Auditor- 
ium on  the  Exposition  grounds,  Portland,  Oregon.  It  was  one 
of  a  series  of  Congresses  pertaining  to  the  social  welfare  of  the 
Pacific  Northwest.  The  notable  success  of  the  Educational  Con- 
gress was  due  chiefly  to  the  fact  that  the  Committee  on  Congresses 
secured  the  hearty  and  effective  co-operation  of  the  educators  of 
Oregon,  Washington,  Idaho  and  Montana,  represented  by  a  Gen- 
eral Committee  of  seventeen  and  in  turn  by  an  Executive  Com- 
mittee of  five.  A  bill  was  passed  by  the  Oregon  Legislature 
(Senate  Bill  No.  133)  whereby  the  County  Superintendents  of 
Oregon  were  permitted  to  omit  the  annual  county  institutes  for 
1905,  and  to  apply  the  funds  to  the  expenses  of  this  Congress. 
About  $2,000  was  thus  accorded,  sufficient  to  cover  all  the  expense 
of  procuring  distinguished  speakers  for  the  Congress  and  to  share 
in  the  expense  of  printing  this  volume. 

Upon  the  pages  immediately  following  may  be  found  the 
committees,  organization  of  the  Congress,  and  the  program  as 
carried  out.  The  proceedings  of  the  Congress  in  detail  are  not 
given.  It  was  very  regrettably  necessary  to  omit  the  addresses 
of  the  distinguished  presiding  officers  and  the  addresses  of  those 
who  had  been  invited  by  the  committees  to  lead  the  discussions — 
everything,  in  fact,  but  the  principal  addresses.  We  hope  that 
some  other  worthy  medium  of  publication  may  be  found  for  the 
noteworthy  utterances  of  Professor  J.  R.  Robertson,  of  Pacific 
University ;  Professor  H.  D.  Sheldon,  of  the  University  of  Oregon  ; 
Mr.  B.  W.  Johnson,  Director  of  Manual  Training,  Seattle,  Wash- 
ington; Honorable  W.  T.  Harris,  United  States  Commissioner  of 
Education  (following  Mr.  Frank  Rigler  on  Thursday),  and  Pres- 
ident S.  B.  L.  Penrose,  of  Whitman  College. 

The  Committee  regrets  that  it  has  been  impossible  to  obtain 
the  manuscripts  of  three  important  addresses,  those  of  Professor 
A.  H.  Yoder,  Mr.  Frank  Rigler,  and  Professor  Samuel  McCune 
Lindsay.  The  latter  will  be  printed  privately  and  distributed  later. 

This  volume  will  be  sent  to  anyone  making  application  to  the 
Secretary  of  the  Congresses  Committee  for  the  same  and  enclosing 
six  cents  for  postage. 

W.  G.  ELIOT,  JR., 
Secretary  Lewis  and  Clark  Committee  on  Congresses, 

681  Schuyler  Street,  Portland,  Oregon,  U.  S.  A.. 


358823 


Organisation  anfc  program 

Lewis  and  Clark  Congresses  Committee — J.  R.  Wilson,  Chairman ; 
W.  G.  Eliot,  Jr.,  Secretary ;  W.  W.  Cotton,  W.  L.  Brewster, 
E.  P.  Hill,  R.  W.  Montague,  S.  S.  Wise. 

Executive  Committee  of  Educators — J.  H.  Ackerman,  Chairman, 
State  Superintendent  of  Oregon ;  R.  B.  Bryan,  State  Superin- 
tendent of  Washington ;  Miss  May  L.  Scott,  State  Superin- 
tendent of  Idaho;  W.  E.  Harmon,  State  Superintendent  of 
Montana ;  W.  N.  Ferrin,  D.  A.  Grout,  J.  C.  Zinser. 

Committee  of  Educators — P.  L.  Campbell,  President  of  the  State 
University;  W.  N.  Ferrin,  President  of  Pacific  University; 
Frank  Rigler,  D.  A.  Grout,  C.  L.  Starr,  J.  C.  Zinser,  J.  H. 
Copeland,  E.  E.  Bragg;  J.  H.  Ackerman,  State  Superinten- 
dent of  Oregon ;  R.  B.  Bryan,  State  Superintendent  of  Wash- 
ington ;  Miss  May  L.  Scott,  State  Superintendent  of  Idaho : 
and  W.  E.  Harmon,  State  Superintendent  of  Montana. 

Committee  of  County  Superintendents — R.  F.  Robinson,  Chair- 
man; M.  C.  Case,  L.  R.  Alderman. 


VI 


program 

EDUCATIONAL  CONGRESS. 

Held  in  the  Auditorium,  mornings,  from  9  to  12,  August  28  to 

September  2. 

Admission  to  this  Congress  was  free  through  the  street  en- 
trance, this  admission  not  including  admission7  to  the  Exposition 
Grounds. 

Monday,  August  28 — 

Administration  Band. 

Address  of  welcome :  Honorable  A.  L.  Mills,  of  the  Execu- 
tive Committee  of  the  Exposition,  on  behalf  of  the  Ex- 
position. 

Presiding  Officer  for  the  day:  President  W.  N.  Ferrin,  of 
Pacific  University. 

Convocation  address  :  Honorable  William  T.  Harris,  LL.  D., 
United  States  Commissioner  of  Education,  Washington, 
D.  C. 

Address :     Honorable  Andrew  S.  Draper,  Commissioner  of 
Education  for  the  State  of  New  York.    Subject:    "Unset- 
tled Questions  in  the  Organization  and  Administration  of 
Schools." 
Tuesday,  August  29 — 

Vocal  solo:     Mrs.  L.  T.  Chapman,  of  Pacific  University. 

Presiding  Officer  for  the  day:  Mr.  E.  V.  Littlefield,  Presi- 
dent of  the  Oregon  State  Teachers'  Association. 

Address  :  President  Benjamin  Ide  Wheeler,  of  the  University 
of  California.  Subject:  "The  Relation  of  the  Pacific 
Coast  to  Education  in  the  Orient." 

Discussion  :    Professor  J.  R.  Robertson,  of  Pacific  University. 

Address:      Mr.    F.    Louis    Soldan,    City    Superintendent   of 
Schools,  St.  Louis,  Missouri.     Subject:     "Education  in 
a  Democracy." 
Tuesday  Evening,  eight  o'clock,  at  the  Auditorium — 

Lecture  by  Mr.  H.  M.  Leipziger,  Supervisor  of  Lectures  in 
the  New  York  City  Schools.     Subject:     "Adult  Educa- 
tion and  the  Extension  of  the  Schoolhouse." 
Wednesday,  August  30 — 

Presiding  Officer  for  the  day :  President  E.  D.  Ressler,  State 
Normal  School,  Monmouth. 


Address  :  Professor  A.  H.  Yoder,  Department  of  Pedagogics, 
State  University  of  Washington.  Subject :  "Social  Con- 
ditions and  Elementary  Education." 

Discussion:  Professor  H.  D.  Sheldon,  of  the  University  of 
Oregon. 

Address:  Mr.  H.  M.  Leipziger.  Subject:  "Manual  Train- 
ing." 

Discussion :  Mr.  B.  W.  Johnson,  Superintendent  of  Manual 
Training  in  the  Seattle  public  schools. 

In  the  evening  a  reception  was  tendered  Honorable  William 
T.  Harris  at  the  Oregon  State  Building  by  the  Associa- 
tion of  the  Commissioners  of  state  educational  exhibits. 
Thursday,  August  31 — 

Mr.  A.  J.  Church,  City  Superintendent  of  Public  Schools  for 
Baker  City,  Oregon,  was  the  presiding  officer  for  the  day. 

Address :  Honorable  J.  H.  Ackerman,  State  Superintendent 
of  Public  Instruction  for  Oregon.  Subject:  "The  Prob- 
lem of  the  Rural  School." 

/Address :  M/r.  Frank  Rigler,  Superintendent  of  the  Portland 
Public  Schools.  Subject:  "The  Problem  of  Classifica- 
tion." 

Discussion:     Honorable  W.  T.  Harris. 
Friday,  September  1 — 

Mr.  R.  F.  Robinson,  County  Superintendent  for  Multnomah 
County,  presiding  officer  for  the  day. 

General  subject  for  the  day:  "Technical  and  Industrial  Ed- 
ucation." 

Address :  President  E.  A.  Bryan,  of  the  Washington  State 
College,  Pullman,  Washington.  Subject:  "Higher  Ag- 
ricultural Education." 

Address :    Honorable  Howard  J.  Rogers,  Assistant  Commis- 
sioner of  Education  for  the  State  of  New  York.    Subject: 
"Education  in  Reference  to  Our  Future  Industrial  and 
Commercial  Development." 
•Saturday,  September  2 — 

President  Thomas  F.  Kane,  of  the  University  of  Washington, 
Seattle,  Washington,  presiding  officer  for  the  day. 

General  subject :     "Colleges  and  Universities." 

Address :  President  P.  L.  Campbell,  University  of  Oregon, 
Eugene.  Subject:  "Education  and  the  State." 

Discussion:  President  S.  B.  L.  Penrose,  Whitman  College, 
Walla  Walla,  Washington. 

Address:  Professor  Samuel  McCune  Lindsay,  Wharton 
School  of  Finance  and  Commerce,  University  of  Penn- 
sylvania. Subject:  "Education  for  Efficiency  and  the 
Demands  of  Modern  Business." 

Concluding  remarks :    Honorable  J.  H.  Ackerman. 


CONVOCATION  ADDRESS. 
By  W.  T.  HARRIS. 


Fifty  years  ago  enterprising  people  in  Missouri  conceived  the 
idea  of  starting  a  railroad  that  should  extend  in  time  to  the  Pacific 
Ocean  and  connect  this  Western  Coast  line  with  the  Mississippi 
Valley  and  the  Atlantic  Slope. 

This  was  the  latest  form  of  the  heart-hunger  for  a  country  of 
wealth  and  abundance — gold  and  precious  stones,  and  a  fabulous 
king  every  morning  powdered  with  gold-dust  so  that  he  was  the 
shining  one,  as  the  word  rajah  indicates  to  the  people  who  speak 
Sanscrit.  The  land  of  realized  wealth  was  called  India,  and 'was 
sought  by  adventurous  travelers  from  Europe  to  the  East.  And 
a  way  by  sea  around  Africa  was  explored  long  before  Vasco  di 
Gama  doubled  its  southernmost  cape,  not  long  after  Columbus  had 
executed  the  bolder  plan  of  circumnavigating  the  world  by  sailing 
westward.  Almost  every  navigator  who  followed  the  example  of 
Columbus  tried  to  find  not  America,  but  a  western  passage 
through  America  to  India,  the  ideal  land  of  wealth.  They  did 
not  know  of  the  great  wealth  in  gold  offered  by  the  mines  of  the 
west  coast  of  America,  and  were  not  satisfied  with  Mexico  and 
Peru,  but  wished  to  get  to  the  India  of  Eastern  Asia,  whose  story 
they  had  read. 

Thomas  H.  Benton,  Missouri's  great  statesman,  standing 
in  Lafayette  Park  in  St.  Louis  recited  his  oration  at  the  celebration 
of  the  beginning  of  the  first  railroad  ambitious  enough  to  call 
itself  the  Pacific  Railroad,  and  for  which  the  State  of  Missouri 
had  contributed  a  large  sum  from  its  treasury.  Pointing  to  the 
West  along  the  line  of  the  projected  road,  Benton  said  in  his  im- 
pressive manner :  "There  is  the  West,  there  is  India." 

Early  in  our  civil  war  the  Pacific  Railroad  was  pushed 
through  to  completion,  on  the  western  line  from  Chicago  and 
connected  by  a  branch  with  the  Missouri  Pacific. 

Little  was  it  then  thought  that  the  Western  Coast  would  itself 
be  much  richer  than  India  has  ever  been,  and  that  its  commerce 
with  the  East  would  exceed  the  commerce  of  Europe  with  India. 
But  surely  there  has  come  such  a  commerce  to  the  East,  and  with 
it  also  a  great  commerce  to  Asia,  six  great  trans-Pacific  naviga- 
tion lines  already  and  a  prospective  increase  to  a  trade  that  will 
rival  the  domestic  commerce  with  the  Eastern  and  Central  States 
of  this  Republic. 

Fifty  years  before  Benton's  famous  address,  Lewis  and  Clark 
had  made  the  world-historical  exploration  of  Oregon  which  you 


10  Lewis  and  Clark  Educational  Congress. 

celebrate  this  summer  in  this  gorgeous  exposition  of  the  arts  and 
industries  of  all  nations. 

Hence,  too,  this  Educational  Congress,  happily  conceived  be- 
cause it  celebrates  one  of  the  permanent  aspirations  that  had  its 
origin  in  the  heart-hunger  that  led  the  people  of  Europe  out  in 
search  of  the  land  of  the  Golden  King — a  search  which  finally 
led,  on  all  hands  north  and  south,  not  to  kingdoms,  but  to  demo- 
cratic republics  and  to  the  local  self-governments  of  America. 

The  Crusades,  the  age  of  discovery,  and  the  era  of  coloniza- 
tion, all  came  from  the  desire  for  an  opportunity  for  self-activity 
on  the  part  of  the  people  as  people. 

The  realized  nations  of  Europe  were  good  and  gave  much 
opportunity,  far  more  than  had  yet  been  realized  by  other  parts 
of  the  world,  but  that  was  only  a  mere  taste  of  freedom  in  thought 
and  action,  and  there  must  arise  on  the  distant  borderlands  such 
organized  forms  of  opportunity  as  would  satisfy  the  very  ideal  of 
free  development  on  new  lines — each  man  revealing  his  new 
thought  by  deeds.  A  mere  taste  of  freedom  led  to  full  draughts 
of  freedom. 

Man  escapes  from  the  too  great  pressure  of  tradition  and 
too  servile  obedience  to  the  past  by  migrating  to  the  borderland 
of  opportunity  where  he  can  do  for  himself.  If  his  ideals  are 
wise  ones  and  he  has  skill,  he  will  reap  a  rich  reward ;  if  his  ideals 
are  unwise  or  his  practical  skill  very  small,  he  will  reap  poverty 
and  all  manner  of  misfortune.  But  in  both  cases  his  life  will  be 
a  revelation  of  himself  as  an  individual,  and  not  a  mere  slavish 
execution  of  time-worn  usages  and  modes  of  doing. 

The  field  of  opportunity  aids  us  to  free  ourselves  from  the 
weight  of  the  past.  But  that  servitude  of  the  past  is  only  one 
kind  of  slavery.  Present  needs  and  necessities  furnish  another 
kind  of  slavery,  and  the  past  helps  to  free  us  from  the  thraldom 
of  the  present,  and  this  is  the  lesson  of  our  Congress  of  Educa- 
tion here  today.  Education  helps  man  to  understand  the  past 
and  to  bring  it  to  the  aid  of  the  present.  All  its  discoveries,  all 
its  bitter  experiences,  all  its  great  successes,  go  to  the  aid  of  man 
through  education.  His  self-activity  becomes  fortunate  if  he  can 
profit  by  the  observations  and  thoughts  and  inventions  of  his 
fellow  men.  Great  as  he  may  be  in  ambition  and  in  the  raw 
material  of  an  individual  career,  he  will  not  succeed  except  in- 
sofar as  he  reinforces  his  individual  might  by  the  aggregate 
might  of  civilization — except  as  he  reinforces  the  present  by  the 
past. 

Education  has  been  and  is  the  chosen  instrument  of  success, 
for  it  can  in  the  deftest  manner  give  the  new  individual  the 
knowledge  of  the  progress  of  mankind  in  the  conquest  of  nature 
by  science  and  art,  and  the  method  of  organizing  people  into 
free  institutions  by  which  they  mutually  reinforce  one  another. 


Convocation  Address.  11 

Education  changes  the  past  from  a  tyrant  to  a  friendly 
auxiliary — from  an  oppressive  burden  of  blind  customs  to  an 
illuminating  theory  which  all  may  see,  each  for  himself. 

Therefore  it  is  that  with  the  successful  transplanting  of  civi- 
lization into  the  Western  Continent  the  school  has  been  found 
necessary  for  success.  Opportunity  is  lost  to  the  person  who 
cannot  command  knowledge  and  skill  and  who  cannot  combine 
with  his  fellow  men. 

Education  gives  man  freedom,  because  it  gives  him  insight — 
the  ability  to  see  and  understand  for  himself  both  the  past  and 
the  present,  so  that  he  can  use  them  to  build  with. 

In  the  light  of  this  movement  of  civilization  towards  the 
borderlands,  and  in  the  presence  of  this  great  exposition  of  re- 
sources and  production,  let  us  look  at  the  work  before  this  Con- 
gress which  is  laid  out  in  the  program  of  the  five  days  coming, 
and  briefly  recapitulate  some  of  its  most  important  topics. 

The  pupils  and  the  work  in  the  different  grades  are  shown 
in  the  general  exhibits  of  the  Exposition. 

The  discussions  of  this  Congress  will  relate  to  the  special 
interests  of  the  schools  today  which  center  in  such  problems  as: 

1.  The  substitution  of  the  well-graded  school  for  the  rural 
ungraded  school  that  exists  in  the  sparsely  settled  districts.     It 
is  in  process  of  being  supplanted  by  the  graded  schools  through 
the  new  device  of  transportation  to  the  central  school  of  the  vil- 
lage. 

2.  The  makeshift  teacher  is  being  replaced  by  the  profes- 
sionally trained  teacher,  who  is  a  graduate  of  the  normal  school. 

3.  The  professional  teacher  has  salaries  above  him  reaching 
to  $10,000  or  more  as  the  summit — the  rank  and  file  find  it  easy  to 
get  $600  and  can,  in  fact,   almost  start  with  it.     High   school 
positions   open   1,300   new   ones    a    year,    and    25,000    already 
reached — colleges  and  universities  1,000  new  ones  a  year,  and 
more  than   20,000   positions   exist  already.      Superintendents   of 
city  systems,  1,000  of  them  in  cities  of  over  8,000  population,  and 
about  1,500  of  them  in  all.     New  cities  are  growing  out  of  vil- 
lages from  year  to  year. 

4.  Transportation  of  pupils  to  village  centers  from  the  rural 
sparsely  settled  districts  is  in  process  of  eliminating  on  a  large 
scale   the   old   ungraded   school   and   installing   the   professional 
teacher  in  place  of  the  makeshift  teacher  who  comes  in  as  a  vol- 
unteer for  a  three  months'  service. 

Once  begun,  the  transportation  of  pupils  from  ungraded 
schools  to  urban-graded  schools  will  go  on  more  and  more  rap- 
idly, affording  thousands  of  new  positions  annually  for  profes- 
sional teachers,  such  as  are  trained  in  the  normal  schools. 

The  normal  schools  graduate  8,000  pupils  a  year,  and  within 
fourteen  years  have  graduated  113,000,  most  of  whom  are  now 


12  Lewis  and  Clark  Educational  Congress. 

teaching  in  graded  elementary  schools,  high  schools,  and  in  col- 
lege work,  at  annual  salaries  sufficient  to  furnish  a  respectable 
living. 

5.  Transportation  of  pupils  solves  the  problem  of  the  rural 
school.  The  growth  of  villages  increases  the  number  of  ten- 
month  schools.  Railroads  create  centers  of  urban  life,  and  com- 
munities that  read- the  daily  newspaper.  The  significance  of 
graded  schools  is  found  in  the  time  gained  for  recitation,  for  the 
cultivation  of  critical  alertness,  and  for  teaching  how  to  study. 
The  ungraded  school  had  for  its  method  individual  in- 
struction, and  not  class  instruction,  which  becomes  a  powerful 
instrument  in  graded  schools. 

A  population  that  remains  in  an  old  settled  country — in  its 
"fatherland" — grows  up  in  the  grooves  long  ago  fitted  for  it, 
and  is  not  given  to  new  initiatives  or  to  the  development  of  orig- 
inality. "Opportunity"  is  not  found  there  in  its  most  stimulating 
forms. 

Columbus  discovered  America,  and  an  age  of  opportunity 
arose  for  all  Europe  for  a  period  of  200  years — first  an  age  of 
exploration,  which  was  followed  by  an  age  of  colonization. 

What  in  history  is  spread  out  over  centuries  and  "written 
large  on  the  blackboard  of  the  universe,"  so  that  even  the  slow- 
minded  may  see  it,  gets  realized,  by  and  by,  in  each  man's  life 
in  after  ages,  and  now  every  family  in  the  old  centers  of  civili- 
zation— New  York,  Philadelphia,  Boston — sends  its  sons  out  to 
serve  a  business  apprenticeship  in  the  borderlands — Chicago,  San 
Francisco,  and  Portland.  Even  London,  Paris  and  Berlin  send 
their  sons  to  Australia,  Madagascar,  or  the  Argentine  Republic. 
This  age  of  opportunity  which  in  history  was  once  spread  out 
over  300  years  of  Crusades,  200  years  of  discovery  and  coloni- 
zation of  the  New  World — five  centuries  in  all — is  now  taken 
up  into  the  culture  of  every  family,  and  is  lived  through  within 
the  compass  of  a  single  life. 

In  a  newspaper  age,  people  have  learned  to  watch  from  day 
to  day  the  world-history  unrolling  on  the  wheel  of  time,  reading 
its  pages  from  day  to  day  as  they  are  lived  and  written.  Thus 
the  epic  element  enters  human  life  in  its  everyday  tasks,  turning 
its  prose  into  epic  poetry. 

It  is  perhaps  the  greatest  function  of  the  common  school  that 
it  fits  out  its  pupils  with  an  ability  to  read,  and  a  habit  of  reading. 
Reading  involves  the  capacity  to  .recognize,  by  sight,  words  that 
existed  before  the  school  age  only  as  sounds  addressed  to  the 
ear.  The  school  makes  the  child  eye-minded.  He  was  only  ear- 
minded  before.  He  knew  words  only  by  ear,  now  he  begins 
to  know  them  by  the  eye.  As  ear-minded,  he  learned  chiefly  by 
hearsay,  now,  become  eye-minded,  he  learns  by  the  printed  page, 
and  like  Heimdall,  the  gate-keeper  of  the  Gods  in  the  old  Norse 


Convocation  Address.  13 

mythology,  he  can  hear  all  the  movements  in  the  wide  uni- 
verse— he  can  hear  the  trees  grow,  yes,  even  the  wool  growing 
on  the  backs  of  sheep,  the  whisperings  of  the  people  in  China, 
and  India,  in  Russia  and  Japan.  But  the  gift  of  hearing  elevated 
to  a  high  potency  is  not  equal  to  this  gift  of  eye-mindedness  which 
can  stop  the  rolling  wheel  of  time  and  fix  on  its  printed  page  the 
fleeting  moment  so. that  it  is  made  permanent  and  can  be  recalled 
at  pleasure  from  the  past,  or  summoned  hither  from  any  remote 
distance.  Eye-mindedness  and  not  ear-mindedness  can  go  beyond 
the  colloquial  vocabulary  and  master  the  technical  vocabulary  in 
which  science  can  express  with  unmistakable  accuracy  its  obser- 
vations, its  experiments,  and  its  reasonings. 

Let  us  consider  some  of  these  topics  more  in  detail : 

The  preparation  of  the  teacher  for  his  vocation  is  always  a 
central  problem  in  school  management. 

In  1880  there  were  240  normal  students  in  each  million  of 
inhabitants;  in  1897  there  were  936  in  each  million. 

The  normal  school,  it  may  be  said,  has  the  general  effect  of 
making  its  pupils  observant  of  methods. 

The  ordinary  persons  sees  results,  but  does  not  take  note 
•of  the  methods  by  which  they  are  produced.  Hence  the  teacher 
who  has  never  received  instruction  in  a  normal  school  may  hap- 
pen to  be  a  good  teacher,  but  it  is  quite  unusual  for  him  to  under- 
stand how  he  secures  his  own  results;  and  he  is  not  often  able 
to  profit  by  seeing  the  work  of  other  good  teachers,  for  he  cannot 
readily  see  what  method  they  use,  not  having  acquired  the  habit 
of  looking  at  methods.  On  the  other  hand,  the  normal  school 
graduate  seldom  visits  a  successful  school  without  carrying  away 
some  new  idea,  or  at  least,  some  new  device  of  method.  Hence 
normal  school  graduates  continue  to  grow  in  professional  skill 
for  ten,  twenty,  or  even  thirty  years,  while  it  is  said  truly  that  the 
teachers  not  from  normal  schools  usually  reach  their  maximum 
skill  in  from  three  to  five  years.  After  that  period  degeneration 
is  apt  to  set  in  because  of  the  fixation  of  methods  in  ruts — a  me- 
chanical habit  grows  on  the  teacher  who  does  not  readily  see 
"how  his  mannerisms  look  to  other  people. 

Teaching  as  a  makeshift  occupation,  such  as  we  find  it  in 
rural  schools,  with  three  or  four  months'  annual  session,  can 
never  be  of  sufficient  importance  to  cause  young  men  and  women 
to  spend  years  at  training  schools  in  preparation  for  that  work. 
Only  places  with  annual  salaries  and  with  eight  or  ten  months 
of  teaching  will  warrant  the  establishment  of  normal  schools, 
and  the  three  years'  course  of  preparation  necessary  to  secure 
the  qualification  needed  for  the  professional  teacher. 

In  order  that  we  may  provide  good  teachers  there  must  be 
adequate  salaries,  and  there  must  be  annual  salaries,  and  not 


14  Lewis  and  Clark  Educational  Congress. 

monthly  salaries  such  as  are  found  in  schools  that  have  sessions 
of  only  three  or  four  months. 

I  am  therefore  glad  to  mention  here  that  the  average  annual 
increase  in  higher  education  throws  open  nearly  1,000  new  places 
a  year  in  colleges  and  universities  for  teachers  promoted  from  the 
secondary  schools  on  being  found  to  have  the  requisite  skill  and 
scholarship.  There  were  in  1890,  7,918  professors  and  instructors 
in  the  colleges  and  universities  of  the  United  States,  not  count- 
ing the  professional  schools.  In  1903  the  number  had  risen  to 
20,887.  It  started  with  less  than  8,000  and  had  an  increase  of 
new  places  in  thirteen  years  almost  equal  to  1,000  a  year — 12,969. 
The  secondary  schools  of  the  United  States  counted  16,329  teach- 
ers in  1890,  and  in  1903  counted  33,795.  This  increase  gave 
17,466  new  positions  in  thirteen  years  for  teachers  in  public  and 
private  high  schools. 

Besides  these  positions  in  colleges  which  are  for  a  year 
of  eight  or  nine  months,  and  offer  good  salaries,  the  teacher's 
profession  offers  in  the  elementary  and  high  schools  and  in  the 
office  of  superintendent  the  following  positions,  reported  from 
467  cities  of  over  8,000  population,  to  the  special  committee  of 
which  Col.  C.  D.  Wright  was  chairman : 

Salaries.  Position. 

$    600  to  $    700 16,015 

700  to        800  11,064 

800  to        900  8,664 

900  to  1,000 4,424 

,000  to  1,100  2,539 

,100  to  1,200  1,486 

,200  to  1,300 2,825 

,300  to  1,400  1,166 

,400  to  1,500 861 

,500  to  1,600  766 

1,600  to  1,700  1,005 

1,700  to  1,800  227 

1,800  to  1,900 361 

1,900  to  2,000 233 

2,000  and  over 1,918 

Total    53,554 

$500  to  $600 14,193 

Under  $500    17,728     - 

Adding  the  positions  in  colleges  and  universities,  20,887,  to 
53,554  positions  with  salaries  of  $600  and  above,  we  have  a  total 
of  74,441. 

It  will  be  seen  on  inspection  of  the  above  table  that  there 
are  26,475  positions  that  pay  $800  and  upwards,  which  with  the 
college  positions  make  47,362. 

Consolidation  of  Schools  and  Transportation  of  Pupils. 
The  practice  of  consolidating  two  or  more  small  schools  and 
transporting  the  more  distant  pupils  of  the  discontinued  schools 


Convocation  Address.  15 

to  the  central  (usually  graded)  school  at  the  public  expense  has 
been  resorted  to,  either  under  specific  provisions  or  under  the 
general  authority  of  the  law,  in  the  following  states :  California, 
Colorado,  Connecticut,  Florida,  Georgia,  Indiana,  Iowa,  Kansas, 
Maine,  Massachusetts,  Michigan,  Minnesota,  Montana  (1903), 
Nebraska,  New  Hampshire,  New  Jersey,  New  York,  North 
Dakota,  Ohio,  Pennsylvania,  Rhode  Island,  South  Dakota,  Ver- 
mont, Virginia  (1903),  Washington,  Wisconsin,  and  Oregon 
(1903),  twenty-seven  states  in  all. 

Notable  movements  toward  the  consolidation  of  schools,  but 
without  the  feature  of  transportation,  have  been  recently  inaugur- 
ated in  North  Carolina  and  Missouri.  Some  progress  in  the 
same  direction  has  also  been  made  in  Louisiana. 

Consolidate  rural  schools  by  free  transportation  and  provide 
for  their  instruction  in  graded  schools  with  annual  sessions  of 
ten  months,  taught  by  teachers  who  have  professional  skill  and 
who  know  how  to  make  the  class  an  instrument  for  the  instruc- 
tion of  each  individual  pupil  in  the  class. 

Can  a  rural  school  with  a  good  teacher  be  a  good  school? 
It  will  find  in  its  ten,  twenty,  or  thirty  pupils  all  grades  of  ad- 
vancement, from  the  beginners  at  five  years  to  those  who  have 
had  seven  or  eight  years  of  schooling,  and  attained  the  age  of 
sixteen  years  or  more.  These  pupils  cannot  be  taught  in  classes 
to  any  great  extent;  there  must  be  many  recitations,  and  conse- 
quently short  ones.  Let  there  be  good  teachers,  and  they  will 
certainly  accomplish  more  than  poor  ones.  But  what  can  a  good 
teacher  do  in  a  five-minute  recitation?  One  of  the  accomplish- 
ments of  a  trained  teacher  is  his  ability  to  probe  the  pupil's 
understanding  of  the  lesson  and  set  him  thinking  about  the  rela- 
tions of  what  he  has  just  learned  to  what  he  has  learned  at  a 
former  time,  either  at  school  by  study,  or  by  experience,  in  the 
events  of  his  life.  But  even  the  skilled  teacher  cannot,  in  a  five- 
minute  recitation,  probe  the  pupil's  knowledge  of  the  lesson,  and 
connect  it  with  all  its  threads  of  relation.  He  cannot  teach  the 
pupil  habits  of  deeper  thinking.  Moreover,  the  pupil,  if  he  re- 
cites by  himself,  or  in  a  class  of  two  or  three,  does  not  gain  the 
great  advantages  that  come  from  reciting  in  a  class  of  twenty 
pupils  substantially  equal  in  ability.  For  each  pupil  in  a  class 
learns  as  much  from  his  fellow-pupils  as  from  the  teacher  direct. 
He  can  see  the  one-sidedness  of  the  recitations  of  his  fellows. 
They  have  learned  some  things  that  escaped  his  attention,  but 
have  neglected  others  that  he  has  learned  well.  There  is  too  great 
a  disparity  between  the  pupil's  view  of  a  subject  and  the  teach- 
er's view  to  make  a  thorough  mutual  understanding  possible, 
except  through  the  mediation  of  the  class.  Each  pupil  learns 
more  from  the  teacher's  criticism  of  the  work  of  the  other  pupils 
than  from  the  criticism  of  his  own  work. 


16  Lewis  and  Clark  Educational  Congress. 

Every  recitation  reveals  to  the  pupils  of  the  class  many  points 
of  view  -that  they  had  missed  in  the  preparation  of  their  lessons ; 
some  have  missed  this  point  and  some  that  point.  They  learn 
also  to  criticise  the  text-book  and  overcome  their  superstitious 
reverence  for  what  they  find  printed  in  books. 

The  Growth  of  High  Schools  and  Colleges. 

Before  considering  our  next  theme,  "The  Growth  of  High 
Schools  and  Colleges,"  I  ask  your  attention  to  a  definition  of 
civilization. 

What  right,  it  is  asked,  has  one  nation  to  impose  its  form 
on  another  by  force,  on  the  ground  that  its  own  is  a  higher 
form  of  civilization?  What  infallible  criterion  have  we,  asks 
another,  by  which  we  may  be  entitled  to  conclude  that  we  have  a 
higher  civilization  than  the  neighboring  nations?  Why  is  not 
the  Indian  civilization  as  good  as  ours?  Why  is  not  the  Chinese 
civilization,  or  the  civilization  of  the  Philippine  Islands,  as  good 
as  the  civilization  that  calls  itself  the  United  States,  or  Great 
Britain,  or  France,  or  Germany?  This  is  a  serious  question  and 
needs  to  be  understood  if  one  is  going  to  sit  in  judgment  upon 
national  conduct. 

I  ask  you,  therefore,  to  consider  with  me  the  answer  which 
can  be  made  to  the  question,  "What  is  it  that  makes  one  civilization 
higher  than  another?  What  is  a  high  civilization,  and  what  is 
the  highest  civilization  ?" 

I  offer  a  definition  for  civilization.  It  is  this:  A  people  is 
civilized  when  it  has  formed  institutions  for  itself  which  enable 
each  individual  citizen  to  profit  by  the  industry  of  all  his  fellow- 
citizens;  when  it  enables  each  individual  to  profit  by  the  experi- 
ence and  wisdom,  the  observations  and  the  thoughts  of  his  fel- 
low-citizens;  when  it  encourages  each  individual  to  enter  upon  a 
rational  self-activity  by  which  he  contributes,  either  through  his 
industry  or  through  his  observations  and  his  thoughts,  to  the 
benefit  of  the  people  with  whom  he  lives. 

This  definition  of  civilization  can  be  put  in  another  form 
which  shows  its  significance.  Civilization  enables  man  to  con- 
quer nature  and  make  it  his  servant ;  to  command  the  services  of 
heat,  light,  electricity,  and  of  all  the  inorganic  elements ;  to  com- 
mand also  the  plant  world  or  vegetation,  for  his  uses ;  to  com- 
mand also  the  animal  kingdom  for  the  same  service;  in  short, 
to  command  the  services  of  nature  for  food,  clothing,  and  shel- 
ter. Besides  this  control  over  nature,  civilization  should  give 
man  access  to  the  history  ^of  his  race :  access  to  its  literature ; 
access  to  its  scientific  discoveries  ;  access  to  its  various  inventions ; 
and,  above  all,  access  to  its  moral  and  religious  ideals.  Civiliza- 
tion, in  short,  should  give  man  command  of  the  earth,  and  likewise 
command  of  the  experience  of  the  entire  race. 


Convocation  Address.  17 

In  the  light  of  this  definition  we  may  approach  the  civiliza- 
tions as  they  actually  exist  and  inquire  how  far  they  have  realized 
the  ideal,  how  high  they  have  climbed  on  the  ladder  of  civiliza- 
tion. At  once  we  see  how  low  the  tribal  civilization  is  as  com- 
pared with  the  civilization  of  Great  Britain,  or  France,  or  Ger- 
many. There  is  no  tribal  civilization  on  the  face  of  the  earth,  and 
never  was  one,  which  could  compare  with  these  nations  in  its 
knowledge  of  the  uses  of  mineral  substances,  chemical  transfor- 
mations, and  the  natural  forces  such  as  heat,  light,  electricity, 
gravitation,  etc.  No  tribe  can  possibly  command  the  complete 
resources  of  the  world  as  regards  its'  vegetable  and  its  animal  life, 
the  products  of  agriculture  and  the  mines.  The  reason  for  this 
is  that  the  tribe  is  too  small,  and  the  tribe  from  the  very  nature  of 
its.  constitution  can  not  co-operate  with  other  tribes  nor  receive 
their  help.  It  stops  at  a  view  of  nature  which  is  a  mere  supersti- 
tion. The  tribe  can  climb  only  a  little  way  up  the  ladder  which 
leads  to  the  control  and  command  of  all  the  substances  and  forces 
of  nature.  Consequently  the  tribe  can  not  participate  to  any  great 
degree  either  in  the  productive  industry  of  the  whole  world  or  in 
its  intellectual  investigations  and  discoveries. 

Other  forms  of  civilization  above  the  tribe  take  rank  as  high- 
er or  lower,  according  to  the  degree  in  which  they  realize  this 
ideal  of  conquest  over  nature  and  complete  intercommunication 
with  the  rest  of  the  world.  No  nation  that  lacks  a  great  com- 
merce can  be  so  high  in  civilization  as  Great  Britain  or  France. 
No  nation  that  lacks  railroad  communication  can  be  so  high  in 
civilization  as  the  United  States.  No  nation  that  lacks  steam 
engines  to  perform  its  drudgery  can  be  so  high  as  the  nation 
which  has  these  things. 

Again,  a  nation  that  has  no  printing  presses  and  that  can  not 
buy  or  read  the  books  of  the  world  can  not  be  said  to  have  a  high 
civilization.  And  on  this  scale  the  nation  that  has  the  most  print- 
ing, that  makes  the  most  books,  and  that  reads  the  great  books 
of  the  world  is  higher  than  the  other  nations.  The  ideal  in  this 
respect  is  that  civilization  should  make  it  possible  for  each  .man 
to  know  the  experience  of  all  the  past  through  science  and  litera- 
ture, and  that  he  should  be  able  to  see,  through  the  columns  of 
a  morning  newspaper,  the  history  as  it  is  making,  day  by  day,  in 
all  the  lands  of  the  world. 

Again,  there  is  another  criterion — a  very  important  one.  A 
nation  may  be  very  far  advanced  in  its  ability  to  control  nature 
and  to  command  access  to  the  wisdom  of  the  race ;  but  it  may  do 
this  only  for  some  classes  of  its  citizens  and  not  for  all.  Such  a 
nation  is  not  so  highly  advanced  in  its  civilization  as  one  that 
allows  each  of  its  citizens  to  participate  in  the  product  of  the 
whole.  The  nation  that  gives  schools  to  the  humblest  classes  of 
its  people  as  well  as  to  its  highest  classes,  and  the  nation  which 


18  Lewis  and  Clark  Educational  Congress. 

allows  the  humblest  people  to  govern  themselves  under  just 
laws,  is  a  higher  nation  than  one  which  separates  the  ruling  class 
into  a  government  apart  from  and  above  the  mass  of  the  people. 

The  highest  ideal  of  a  civilization  is  that  of  a  civilization 
which  is  engaged  constantly  in  elevating  lower  classes  of  people 
into  participation  of  all  that  is  good  and  reasonable,  and  perpet- 
ually increasing  at  the  same  time  their  self-activity. 

High  schools  and  colleges  teach  the  grounds  of  our  civiliza- 
tion; the  elementary  schools  provide  the  first  rudiments.  We 
often  hear  people  ask  whether  a  high  school  course  of  study 
is  really  practical,  or  only  ornamental.  Let  us  pause  a  moment 
to  consider.  There  were  292,287  pupils  in  the  United  States  pub- 
lic high  schools,  and  54,726  in  private  high  schools,  studying 
algebra,  in  1900. 

Algebra  is  a  difficult  study,  but  it  gives  an  insight  into  the 
construction  of  arithmetic.  If  a  person  in  later  life  should  forget 
his  arithmetic  he  may  readily  reconstruct  its  rules,  if  he  has 
studied  algebra  at  some  time  in  his  youth  for  a  year.  He  can 
perform  far  more  difficult  problems  by  its  method  than  he  ever 
could  perform  by  simple  arithmetic.  No  advanced  course  of  study 
in  mathematics  can  be  pursued  except  by  aid  of  algebra. 

Besides  these  students  in  algebra,  there  were  168,518  youth 
in  high  schools  studying  geometry.  This  branch  shows  the  neces- 
sary structure  of  all  bodies  that  exist  in  space.  Algebra  and 
geometry  are  tools  of  thought  that  enable  man  to  control  matter 
and  motion.  They  are  among  the  most  practical  of  all  branches 
for  giving  directive  power. 

My  attention  was  called  .to  this  practical  phase  of  high  school 
mathematics  as  applied  to  physics  thirty  years  ago,  when  one  of 
our  high  school  boys  in  St.  Louis,  Mo.,  took  a  humble  position  in 
the  water  works  office  of  that  city.  Some  pipes  in  the  lower  part 
of  the  city,  next  to  the  river,  burst,  and  the  new  ones  by  which 
they  were  replaced  did  not  last  long.  This  boy  made  a  calcula- 
tion, and  found  that  the  pressure  of  150  feet  of  water  is  something 
like  sixty  pounds  to  the  square  inch,  and  that  this  was  more  than 
the  regulation  pipe  used  could  stand,  and,  on  request  of  the  man- 
ager, he  made  a  formula  by  which  the  proper  regulation  standard 
of  pipes  could  be  fixed.  This  boy  was  promoted. 

Physics,  or  "natural  philosophy,"  enrolling  118,936  pupils, 
describes  and  explains  mathematically  the  various  properties  of 
matter  and  force,  showing  the  structure  of  all  kinds  of  machinery 
and  giving  an  insight  into  electricity,  steam,  attraction  of  gravi- 
tation, the  dynamics  of  water,  the  nature  of  the  solar  spectrum,  the 
structure  of  the  telescope,  the  microscope,  and  the  like. 

Of  all  branches  that  have  to  do  with  the  conquest  of  nature, 
by  human  industry,  physics  is  the  most  important  for  the  pupil. 


Convocation  Address.  19 

In  the  languages,  65,684  pupils  in  high  schools  were  studying 
French,  100,873  pupils  studying  German,  24,869  Greek,  and 
314,856  were  studying  Latin.  Latin  is  the  stock  out  of  which 
the  southern  languages  of  Europe  are  formed.  Even  the  northern 
languages  get  the  most  important  part  of  their  vocabularies  from 
it,  namely,  the  technical  words  for  the  sciences  and  the  words 
expressing  fine  shades  of  thought  and  refined  emotions.  Ever  a 
brief  study  of  Latin,  say  six  months,  is  of  immense  value  to  enable 
one  to  be  at  home  in  the  English  language,  of  which  three-fourths 
of  the  vocabulary  is  of  Latin  origin. 

Besides  these  language  studies  which  deal  with  a  knowledge 
of  human  nature,  the  high  school  gives  other  studies  that  help 
powerfully  in  the  same  direction:  238,134  pupils  in  high  schools 
studied  general  history  last  year. 

This  is  an  age  of  the  conquest  of  nature  by  machinery.  One 
hears  gladly  the  strong  speeches  made  by  progressive  men  in 
favor  of  manual  and  industrial  training — there  ought  to  be  free 
industrial  schools  enough  to  enable  each  youth  to  learn  the  trade 
of  his  choice  without  resorting  to  the  tedious  and  wasteful  process 
of  apprenticeship.  In  the  past  thirteen  years  manual  training  has 
been  provided  for  in  322  cities  out  of  the  587  cities  of  over  8.000 
inhabitants,  and  there  are  33,062  pupils  enrolled  in  manual  train- 
ing high  schools.  A  little  more  than  5  per  cent  of  all  high  school 
pupils  in  the  United  States  are  studying  manual  training.  It 
ought  to  be  possible  for  any  middle-aged  man  or  woman  to  attend 
an  evening  school  or  a  day  school  and  learn  a  new  trade  in  a  few 
weeks  or  months — or,  what  is  of  quite  as  much  importance  to 
them,  learn  how  to  improve  themselves  in  the  trades  they  have 
been  following  for  twenty  years  without  acquiring  any  consid- 
erable skill  because  of  having  no  opportunity  to  learn  the  most 
approved  new  methods  and  manipulations.  All  this  is  true,  but 
it  remains  a  fact  that  the  pupils  who  have  well  learned  the  com- 
mon school  branches  are  far  better  fitted  to  use  machinery  than 
the  illiterate  laborers  who  have  served  their  long  apprenticeships 
of  seven  or  even  of  twenty-seven  years. 

The  growth  of  high  schools  and  colleges  in  the  United  States 
has  been  something  enormous  in  the  past  thirty  years.  I  quote 
here  the  comparison  of  1890  with  1900.  If  we  add  the  totals 
of  higher  education  to  those  of  secondary  schools,  in  order  to 
see  what  the  country  as  a  whole  is  doing  in  schools  beyond 
the  elementary  grade,  we  find  that  in  1890  there  were  8,053 
students  in  the  million  of  population,  Who  were  pursuing  ad- 
vanced studies,  and  that  these  8,053  had  increased  in  the  decade 
to  12,588. 


20 


Lewis  and  Clark  Educational  Congress. 


ENROLLMENT  OF  SECONDARY   PUPILS. 
Ninth  to  twelfth  year  of  course  of  study  in  the  United  States. 


1890. 

1900. 

In  each  million 
population. 

1890. 

1900. 

Private  academies 

94,931 
203,000 

69,109 

110,727 
520,000 

89,193 

1,576 
3,241 

1,115 

1,443 

6,832 

1,174 

Public  high  schools  

Preparatory    classes    and 
special    institutions.  .  .  . 

Total  secondary  pupils 

367,040 

719,920 

5,872 

9,449 

TOTAL  HIGHER  EDUCATION  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


1890. 

1900. 

In  each  million 
population. 

1890. 

1900. 

Colleges 

800 
1,301 

1,284 
1,855 

Other    higher    education, 
professional   and   tech- 
nical                           .  . 

Total  higher 

2,181 

3,139 

Grand  total   secondary 
and    higher    



8,053 

12,588 

The  significance  of  these  educational  items  cannot  be  fully 
appreciated  without  considering  the  facts  that  I  have  hinted  al- 
ready, namely,  that  the  school  gives  the  power  to  continue  one's 
education  with  increasing  skill  throughout  life.  Even  the  illiter- 
ate grows,  although  slowly,  in  mental  power  by  reason  of  his 
experience  in  life.  But  his  experience  is  limited  to  what  he  can 
observe  in  himself  and  in  a  small  circle  of  neighbors.  But  his 
school-educated  companion  who  can  read  and  does  read, ;  is  all  the 
time  widening  his  mental  view  by  what  he  gets  from  the  printed 
page,  and  growing  in  accuracy  of  thought  on  account  of  it.  Hence 
it  happens,  after  fifty  years  of  life,  at  the  age  of  sixty  years,  the 
illiterate  has  grown  as  much  by  experience  as  he  could  grow  by 
one  year  of  schooling,  while  his  literate  companion  has  grown  at 
least  ten  times  as  much. . 

So  with  the  secondary  pupil  there  are  opened  new  windows 
out  of  which  to  observe  man  and  nature — the  windows  of  alge- 
bra and  geometry,  of  physics  and  chemistry,  of  Latin  and  French 
or  German,  and  of  general  history.  He  gets  at  least  three  times 
as  much  from  the  printed  page  of  science  or  literature  as  the 
graduate  of  the  elementary  school,  and  his  accumulation  in  the 


Convocation  Address.  21 

course  of  fifty  years  is  more  than  ten  times  that  of  his  elementary 
companion,  or  100  times  that  of  the  illiterate. 

In  one  year's  time  the  high  school  graduate  has  not  made 
very  many  applications  of  his  knowledge,  but  as  the  years  go  on 
he  starts  new  trends  of  observation,  and  follows  out  threads  of 
causation  and  long  paths  of  genesis  in  the  growth  of  the  things 
and  events  that  come  under  his  immediate  observation. 

The  student  of  higher  education  far  surpasses  the  secondary 
student  in  his  ability  to  see  lines  of  causality  and  of  genesis  in 
facts  and  events,  and  his  power  to  accumulate  in  his  life  experi- 
ence from  year  to  year  is  far  greater.  His  power  to  see  the  past 
in  the  present  and  to  predict  the  future  at  a  glance  of  the  present 
situation  seems  miraculous,  after  fifty  years  of  using  his  higher 
education.  Just  as  Agassiz  could  see  in  the  scale  of  a  fish  enough 
of  its  character  to  enable  him  to  draw  the  fish,  although  he  had 
not  yet  seen  the  fish,  and  just  as  Asa  Gray  could  divine  the  his- 
tory of  a  tree  from  seeing  it  at  a  single  glance,  so  in  a  thousand 
ways  and  in  a  thousand  different  provinces  the  old  man  who  in 
youth  has  been  trained  in  the  college  and  in  the  professional  school 
acquires  powers  of  seeing  things  in  their  history  and  in  their  com- 
plex of  relations. 

These  are  the  considerations  that  make  us  rejoice  at  the 
recent  unexampled  increase  of  sec6ndary  and  higher  education, 
and  it  remains  for  us  to  say  that  this  increase  is  likely  to  go  on, 
because  it  is  due  to  the  growth  of  productive  industry  in  the 
country.  The  use  of  water,  steam,  and  electricity  in  the  indus- 
tries is  increasing  the  average  annual  production  of  each  inhabi- 
tant. This  accumulation  of  wealth  enables  our  people  to  prepare 
their  children  in  better  schools  and  in  longer  periods  of  schooling. 

The  average  school  term  of  the  United  States  is  only  five 
years  of  200  days  each,  or  1,000  days.  The  future  will  see  this 
lengthened  with  the  increase  of  wealth  in  the  community.  I  do 
not  think  that  the  average  production  of  wealth  in  1800  could 
have  been  more  than  10  cents  a  day  for  each  man,  woman,  and 
child,  but  by  1850  it  had  risen  to  30  cents  a  day,  and  in  1880  to 
44  cents ;  in  1890  to  52  cents ;  in  1900  to  58  cents.  The  average 
amount  of  schooling  will  increase  to  ten  years  and  more  when,  at 
some  time  in  the  future,  we  can  produce  a  dollar  a  day  for  each 
inhabitant. 

The  great  work  of  the  elementary  schools  impresses  us  when 
we  consider  its  function  in  the  industrial  and  political  life  of  our 
nation.  It  makes  public  opinion  possible.  Instead  of  ninety-nine 
drudges  producing  raw  material  and  one  person  working  to  fur- 
nish and  diffuse  directive  intelligence,  it  will  come  to  pass  some 
time  in  the  future  that  one  man  will,  by  the  aid  of  machinery, 
furnish  the  raw  material,  another  man's  labor  will  make  the  useful 
articles  of  food,  clothing,  and  shelter;  ten  m©re  will  elaborate 


22  Lewis  and  Clark  Educational  Congress. 

articles  of  comfort  and  luxury ;  the  rest,  more  than  80  per  cent  of 
the  community,  will  take  up  vocations  having  to  do  with  pro- 
tection and  culture. 

The  work  of  education  is  the  direct  work  of  helping  individ- 
uals to  help  themselves.  It  does  not  go  on  as  fast  as  it  should, 
nor  as  far  as  it  should.  Our  comfort  is  that  it  is  making  visible 
progress.  The  average  complete  school  life  for  the  entire  nation 
is  at  present  only  1,034  days  for  each  person.  This  would  give 
five  years — each  year  of  200  days — enough  to  take  a  pupil  through 
the  primary  schools  of  a  city.  Even  Massachusetts,  with  all  its 
schools,  public  and  private,  does  not  give  enough  schooling  to 
amount  to  seven  years  apiece  for  its  inhabitants.  Some  states  of 
the  union  give  only  a  little  more  than  two  years  for  an  average. 
But  it  is  worthy  of  note  that  Massachusetts,  with  nearly  twice  the 
average  schooling  per  individual,  produces  nearly  or  quite  twice 
the  amount  of  wealth  per  individual,  compared  with  the  nation's 
average.  In  1880  the  census  seemed  to  show  that  the  average 
production  of  the  whole  nation  was  40  cents  per  day  for  each 
inhabitant.  That  of  Massachusetts  came  up  to  80  cents. 

It  is  in  view  of  the  fact  that  the  laborers  who  produce  raw 
material  are  paid  only  one-half  of  the  wages  paid  to  those  engaged 
in  skilled  industries,  such  as  are  carried  on  in  cities,  that  we  find 
the  significance  of  this  great  exposition  in  the  City  of  Portland. 

The  symbols  of  the  highest  civilization  are  the  railroad,  the 
daily  newspaper,  and  the  school.  Here  we  find  the  type  of  the 
bearer  of  civilization.  It  brings  together  the  producer  and  the 
consumer.  In  the  city  the  raw  material  brings  the  highest  price, 
and  the  manufactured  product  is  found  at  its  cheapest  price. 

The  city  makes  combinations ;  it  seeks  out  the  producer  and 
buys  his  product,  selling  him  its  equivalent  of  the  merchandise 
of  the  world.  The  city  thus  connects  the  people  of  its  environ- 
ment with  the  world.  The  family  that  produces  for  itself  its  own 
food,  clothing,  and  shelter  is  living  on  a  low  plane  of  civilization. 
It  should  produce  some  specialty  for  the  market  of  the  world,  and 
exchange  it  for  a  share  in  all  the  productions  of  mankind.  Each 
person  consumes  or  partakes  of  the  product  of  the  world  of  uni- 
versal human  society ;  each,  himself,  contributes  to  the  supply  of 
all  others.  It  is  this  process  of  intercommunication  of  each  with 
all  that  is  the  essence  of  civilization. 

The  family  that  produces  all  that  it  consumes  does  not  enjoy 
luxury  nor  culture  as  the  result  of  its  labor.  But  when  it  has 
access  to  the  market  of  the  world  through  the  mediation  of  the 
city,  then  it  may  have  endless  variety  in  what  it  consumes.  By 
the  division  of  labor,  skill  and  productive  power  are  increased, 
so  that  the  share  of  each  person  is  multiplied.  Hence,  each  gets 
more  than  he  gives  to  the  world  market. 


Convocation  Address.  23 

Here  we  may  see  the  vast  significance  of  the  school  educa- 
tion in  enabling  the  citizen  who  shares  in  the  productions  of  his 
fellowmen  to  know  his  fellows,  and  understand  their  views  of 
the  world.  It  enables  him  to  know  their  opinions,  and  to  share 
in  their  spiritual  productions  as  well  as  in  their  material  produc- 
tions. It  enables  him  to  participate  in  the  formation  of  national 
and  international  public  opinion. 

Small  as  is  the  schooling  given  by  our  nation  to  its  people, 
some  four  and  one-half  years  apiece,  it  suffices  to  make  reading 
and  writing  universal,  and  with  them  gives  also  a  limited  acquain- 
tance with  the  rudiments  of  arithmetic  and  geography.  This 
fits  the  citizen  to  become  a  reader  of  the  daily  newspaper,  and 
thus  to  bring  him  under  an  educating  influence  that  will  continue 
throughout  his  life.  A  newspaper  civilization  is  one  that  governs 
by  means  of  public  opinion.  The  newspaper  creates  public  opin- 
ion. No  great  free  nation  is  possible  except  in  a  newspaper  civi- 
lization. By  aid  of  the  printed  page,,  the  school-educated  person 
makes  present  to  himself  daily  the  events  of  .the  world  and  lives 
an  epic  life.  For  the  epic  life  is  the  life  of  nations.  A  certain 
portion  of  the  day  of  each  citizen  is  given  to  contemplating  world 
events,  and  to  discussing  them.  He.  sees  the  doings  of  his  state 
and  nation,  and  forms  his  own  opinion.  His  opinion,  in  the 
aggregate  with  those  of  his  fellow  citizens,  is  collected  and  offered 
to  the  world  by  the  newspaper.  That  our  schools  suffice  to  pro- 
duce a  government  by  public  opinion — this  is  a  result  of  a  higher 
order  than  the  other  good  results  which  we  have  canvassed.  To 
give  people  the  power  to  readjust  their  vocations,  and  to  climb 
up  to  better  paid  and  more  useful  industries  out  of  lives  of  drudg- 
ery, is  a  great  thing,  a  sufficient  reason  in  itself  for  establishing 
a  public  school  system.  But  to  give  the  people  the  power  of  par- 
ticipating in  each  other's  thoughts — to  give  each  one  the  power  to 
contribute  his  influence  to  the  formation  of  a  national  public 
opinion — is  a  far  greater  good;  for  it  looks  forward  to  the  mil- 
lenium,  when  no  wars  will  be  needed  for  the  mediation  of  hostile 
ideas. 


24  Lewis  and  Clark  Educational  Congress. 

UNSETTLED    QUESTIONS    IN    THE    ORGANIZATION 
AND  ADMINISTRATION  OF  THE  SCHOOLS. 

By  ANDREW  S.  DRAPER. 

There  are  certain  fundamentals  of  the  American  educational 
system  which,  it  may  well  be  said,  are  settled.  They  are  settled 
by  common  thinking  and  universal  acceptance ;  by  legislative  sanc- 
tion and  judicial  determination.  They  are  looked  upon  as  the 
necessary  basis  of  our  political  system ;  as  the  essential  support, 
guardian,  and  guide  of  a  democratic  form  of  government. 

For  example:  It  is  settled  that  our  schools  are  to  be  free. 
They  are  to  be  supported  at  the  common  cost.  All  property  is 
to  contribute  its  share.  They  are  to  be  open  to  all.  There  is  to 
be  nothing  about  them  to  which  any  may  justly  object  on  con- 
scientious grounds.  They  are  to  be  managed  and  their  particular 
character  and  accommodations  determined  and  provided  by  the 
people  in  primary  assemblages  or  by  officers  chosen  by  the  people. 
It  is  accepted  that  they  are  subject  to  the  legislative  power  in  each 
state  because  they  are  supported  by  taxation,  and  the  power  of 
taxation  is  a  sovereign  power  which  can  be  exercised  only  by  the 
legislature.  The  legislative  power  which  levies  taxes  must  ac- 
count for  the  manner  in  which  the  revenues  are  used.  This 
logically  results  in  very  considerable  legislative  control  and  direc- 
tion over  the  schools,  but  the  local  interest  in  the  schools  is  so 
great  and  so  jealous  of  prerogative  that  the  legislative  powers  go 
only  to  general  and  vital  matters,  while  the  real  organizing,  hous- 
ing, and  administration  of  the  schools  is,  and  is  likely  to  remain, 
local.  It  is  settled  that  the  power  of  the  state  shall  undertake  to 
assure  a  suitable  school  within  accessible  distance  of  every  home 
and  that  each  local  community  shall  elaborate  and  embellish  its 
particular  school  as  far  as  the  majority  rule  will  authorize  or 
permit.  It  is  settled  that  there  shall  be  a'free  high  school  in  every 
considerable  town  and  a  free  university  in  every  state  unless  an 
endowed  university  is  already  upon  the  ground  and  in  some 
measure  meets  the  public  needs.  It  is  settled  that  all  grades  of 
schools  shall  articulate  together  with  some  exactness ;  that  instruc- 
tion shall  be  continuous  from  the  primary  school  to  the  graduate 
school  in  the  university,  and  that  all  pupils  shall  be  encouraged 
to  go  as  far  and  as  high  as  they  will.  It  is  fundamental,  though  it 
has  not  always  been  so,  that  girls  shall  have  the  same  rights  as 
boys  in  the  schools.  It  is  settled  that  the  legislature  may  proVide 
for  training  teachers,  and  establish  the  methods,  the  standards, 
and  the  authority  for  determining  their  qualifications ;  may  also  go 
as  far  as  it  pleases  in  appropriating  moneys  directly  to  the  support 
of  the  schools  or  in  fixing  the  sums  which  localities  must  raise,  ab- 


Unsettled  Questions  of  the  Schools.  25 

solutely  or  conditionally;  and  may  go  further  and  create  such 
supervising  officers  and  such  machinery  for  promoting  effective 
teaching  as  it  pleases. 

The  vital  American  principle  that  there  shall  be  no  organic  or 
financial  relation  between  the  state  and  any  church,  between  a 
school  supported  in  whole  or  in  part  by  taxation  and  any  sectarian 
interest,  has  a  decisive  bearing  upon  the  affairs  of  the  public 
schools.  The  state  will  encourage  every  movement  or  enterprise 
which  promises  to  be  of  advantage  to  any  factor  in  the  population 
by  giving  its  sanction  and  approval  thereto,  but  it  will  not  enter 
into  any  business  or  moneyed  relation  with  any  class  or  faction  as 
against  any  other,  and  it  will  not  divest  itself  of  any  part  of  its 
power  and  function  to  deal  with  all  sectional,  class,  religious,  or 
partisan  interests  with  exact  and  impartial  justice.  Accordingly, 
the  public  schools  are  common  to  all,  must  avoid  all  entanglements, 
and,  in  the  fullest  practicable  measure,  must  be  of  equal  advantage 
to  all. 

It  is  not  possible,  nor  desirable,  to  enumerate  all  of  the 
foundation  principles  of  the  common  school  system.  They  are 
easily  traceable  to  the  essential  principles  of  our  federal  and  state 
constitutions,  to  the  settled  doctrines  of  the  common  law  and  to 
the  uncontroverted  usages  which  have  grown  up  in  the  thought 
and  the  public  life  of  this  country.  Wherever  the  developing 
educational  system  comes  in  contact  with  these  headlands  of  our 
political  theory  and  our  system  of  jurisprudence  it  will  be  well 
to  understand  at  once  that  the  educational  system  will  have  to 
adjust  itself  to  them.  These  fundamental  principles  are  well 
"settled,"  and,  so  far  as  the  -features  and  phases  of  the  school  sys- 
tem relate  to  such  principles,  they  will  have  to  be  considered 
"settled"  also. 

Aside  from  this,  nothing  is  settled  beyond  recall  and  nothing 
has  gone  beyond  the  possibility  of  change.  Indeed,  the  adapta- 
bility and  effectiveness  of  the  schools  depend  upon  unceasing 
modifications  which  are  in  keeping  with  the  new  conditions  which 
are  constantly  arising,  the  new  educational  experiences  which 
continually  crowd  upon  us,  and  the  new  purposes  and  outlooks 
which  are  every  day  opening  up  to  us* 

We  can  not  too  often  point  out  that  our  educational  progress 
is  measured  by  the  freedom  and  confidence  with  which  we  do 
things,  provided  we  keep  sane,  have  proper  respect  for  what  our 
predecessors  have  done,  and  do  not  make  changes  for  our  own 
diversion  or  for  the  mere  sake  of  a  change.  Men  who  would  make 
a  minor  position  in  the  school  system  the  means  of  attracting  at- 
tention or  gaining  notoriety,  men  who  can  destroy  and  not  con- 
struct, men  who  are  more  ambitious  than  useful,  often  make 
trouble  by  supporting  all  sorts  of  changes  in  the  schools.  That 
is  one  of  the  difficulties  with  which  a  democracv  has  to  contend. 


26  Lewis  and  Clark  Educational  Congress. 

But  that  is  only  a  difficulty  in  administration,  and  not  a  real  ques- 
tion in  constructive  or  administrative  policy.  Happily,  the  school 
system  has  gone  beyond  the  point  where  such  men  can  do  it  much 
harm.  They  are  powerless  to  do  much  good  or  harm.  Any  real 
problem  in  the  organization  and  administration  of  the  schools 
will  have  to  be  met  by  experts  in  education — men  and  women  who 
know  the  history  and  have  studied  the  philosophy  of  education, 
who  realize  the  under-running  currents  of  American  life,  and  are 
desirous  of  shaping  the  schools  to  the  purposes  of  a  nation  which 
is  bound  to  give  every  one  his  chance  and  whose  public  policies 
and  educational  instrumentalities  must  aid  and  encourage  every 
child  of  the  republic  to  make  the  most  of  his  chance.  Such  men 
and  women  need  not  fear  to  take  the  initiative  in  meeting  any 
new  questions  which  may  arise  in  the  school  system,  or  to  make 
any  changes  which,  after  discussion,  are  supported  by  anything 
like  a  consensus  of  opinion.  The  life  and  virility  of  the  educa- 
tional system  depend  upon  their  doing  so. 

I  am  to  suggest — but  must  leave  it  to  you  to  settle,  if  they 
are  to  be  at  once  settled — some  of  the  problems  which  now  seem 
to  confront  the  American  school  system.  Presenting  them  with 
sufficient  detail  to  disclose  their  reality,  I  shall  not  feel  called 
upon  to  sustain  one  view  or  another  with  arguments,  or  even  to 
indicate  any  opinion  of  my  own  concerning  their  solution. 

It  is  an  open  question  how  much  initiative  and  control  shall 
be  exerted  by  the  state  and  how  much  shall  be  left  to  the  locality 
concerning  the  schools.  Of  course,  since  the  public  school 
system  has  come  to  be  supported  by  taxation  and  the  power  of 
taxation  can  not  be  exercised  except  by  the  sovereign  authority  of 
a  state,  there  is  no  question  about  the  state  having  ample  power 
to  do  what  it  will  about  the  schools.  But  there  is  very  serious 
question  about  the  measure  of  direction  which  the  state  ought 
to  impose.  People  learn  to  do  by  doing.  An  officer  bearing  the 
appointment  and  exercising  the  authority  of  the  state  may  know 
more  about  educational  organization  and  administration  than  a 
local  school  meeting  or  local  official  may  be  expected  to  know,  or, 
knowing,  may  be  able  to  do.  He  may  do  things  better  than  they 
will  be  done  without  him.  Yet,  if  he  initiates  and  supervises 
everything,  the  people  will  come  to  depend  upon  him,  and  will  in- 
variably look  to  the  state  to  do  what  would  broaden  and  strengthen 
them  if  they  would  do  for  themselves.  On  the  other  hand,  people 
need  educational  intrusion  from  the  outside.  It  often  happens 
that  a  community  thinks  that  it  has  the  very  best  schools,  when  it 
has  almost  the  worst.  The  difficulty  is  that  it  can  not  see,  and  of 
course  it  can  not  do.  How  are  state  control  and  local  self-initia- 
tive and  administration  to  be  balanced  with  the  best  results  ? 

Very  akin  to  this  question  is  another,  as  to  the  measure  of 
money  which  the  state  should  provide  for  the  support  of  the 


Unsettled  Questions  of  the  Schools.  27 

schools,  and  the  amount  which  should  be  left  to  each  city,  town, 
or  district  to  supply.  In  many  states  the  support  of  the  schools 
is  left  altogether  to  the  locality.  In  others  a  very  considerable 
sum  is  distributed  annually  on  some  basis  which  requires  the 
stronger  sections  to  aid  in  some  measure  the  weaker  ones,  and 
so  equalize  educational  advantages  over  the  state.  The  City  of 
New  York,  for  example,  pays  annually  about  a  million  and  a 
quarter  of  dollars  to  aid  other  sections  of  the  state  which  are 
financially  weaker.  Of  the  legal  competency  of  the  legislature 
to  exact  this  there  can  be  no  question.  Of  the  substantial  aid 
to  the  rural  districts  of  the  state  there  is  no  doubt.  But  people 
are  never  satisfied  with  the  amount  of  money  which  they  get  for 
nothing.  The  more  they  get  the  more  they  demand,  the  more 
they  come  to  depend  upon  it,  and  the  less  they  will  be  willing  to 
raise  for  themselves.  It  is  clear  enough  to  me  that  in  education 
the  stronger  and  wealthier  sections  of  a  state  ought  to  help  the 
weaker  and  poorer  ones.  But,  in  justice  to  themselves,  the 
weaker  ones  should  not  be  allowed  to  take  all  they  will.  How  are 
the  state  and  the  local  support  to  be  adjusted  so  as  to  assure  the 
best  schools  in  every  section  and  promote  the  highest  interests  of 
an  entire  commonwealth? 

Again,  if  the  state  is  to  raise  and  distribute  funds  for  the 
support  of  local  schools,  how  is  the  distribution  to  be  adjusted  as 
between  the  primary,  secondary,  and  higher  schools?  There  are 
some  precious  souls  who,  if  they  are  in  favor  of  anything  educa- 
tionally, think  they  are  for  the  "three  R's"  exclusively,  or,  at 
most,  they  are  for  anything  beyond  the  "three  R's"  only  when  the 
need  of  their  being  for  it  has  wholly  passed  away.  Yet  we  know 
very  well  that  a  mere  ability  to  read'  and  write  and  cipher  does  not 
sustain  intellectual  life  and  democratic  institutions  anywhere  in 
this  country  now ;  and  we  know  quite  as  well  that  the  excellence 
of  the  primary  schools  is  dependent  upon  the  prevalence  and 
efficiency  of  the  secondary  schools.  Schools  are  of  little  worth 
without  schools  above  them ;  thus  it  is  to  the  very  limits  of  knowl- 
edge and  of  teaching  power.  But  the  secondary  schools  are  more 
costly  than  the  elementary  schools,  and  the  higher  are  more  ex- 
pensive than  the  secondary.  How  is  the  state  to  use  its  power 
so  as  to  balance  the  school  system,  assure  an  equitable  distribution 
of  the  different  grades  and  so  secure  the  best  results  which  wis- 
dom can  devise? 

Yet  again,  how  is  the  teaching  force  to  be  made  the  best 
possible?  There  are  more  who  want  to  teach  than  there  are 
places.  The  pay  is  not  large,  but  the  work  allows  considerable 
leisure  and  satisfies  pride.  The  unprepared  ones  are  to  be  shut 
out.  But  who  are  prepared  and  who  are  unprepared?  Some 
who  know  less  that  is  found  in  books  than  others  do  are  better 
teachers  than  the  others  are.  Surely  some  who  are  not  very 


28  Lewis  and  Clark  Educational  Congress. 

successful  in  passing  examinations  are  acceptable  teachers.  Some 
definite  scholastic  attainments  are  necessary,  according  to  grade. 
Some  general  culture  is  imperative,  regardless  of  grade.  What 
parent  wants  to  send  his  child  to  a  coarse  and  mannerless  teacher, 
no  matter  how  much  he  knows  of  some  things?  Some  pro- 
fessional training  in  educational  theory  and  in  teaching  methods 
is  requisite.  Then  there  is  the  matter  of  spirit  and  finally  of 
adaptability.  But  this  refers  to  the  individual  teacher.  How 
is  the  morale  of  the  whole  force  to  be  uplifted?  It  can  not  be 
done  through  indifference  and  inattention.  It  will  not  move  for- 
ward of  its  own  motion.  It  can  not  be  done  through  political 
officers  who  know  less  themselves  than  they  are  bound  to  exact 
of  the  teachers.  It  can  not  be  done  through  examinations  alone, 
and  it  can  not  be  done  without  examinations.  It  can  not  be  done 
with  a  rush,  and  it  can  not  be  done  through  harshness  to  worthy 
and  deserving  teachers.  It  is  a  matter  of  sound  plan,  steadily 
followed  for  a  long  time.  How  is  the  plan  to  be  determined  upon, 
and  by  what  method  is  it  to  be  carried  to  a  meritorious  conclusion  ? 

Then  there  is  always  the  unsettled  question  of  competent 
supervision.  The  office  of  school  superintendent  is  an  American 
creation.  In  other  constitutional  countries  the  schools  do  not 
attempt  as  much  as  ours  do ;  the  teachers  are  men  with  life  tenure 
who  follow  the  instructions  of  the  government  minister  of  educa- 
tion in  all  things;  the  work  is  routine;  the  habit  of  attendance 
by  young  children  in  primary  schools  is  universal ;  there  is  no 
mixing  of  classes  and  no  articulation  of  schools,  and  the  results 
place  the  percentage  of  illiteracy  lower  than  in  this  country.  With 
us  the  curriculum  is  long  and  diversified;  we  instruct  all  classes 
of  children  and  we  do  it  in  the  same  schools ;  our  teaching  force 
is  changeable,  not  so  professional  in  character  and  often  over- 
taxed. We  have  tried  to  overcome  difficulties  by  general  super- 
vision, and  in  a  measure  we  have  succeeded.  But  the  really  pro- 
fessional superintendent  is  largely  without  legal  authority,  and 
the  political  superintendent,  who  often  survives  in  the  rural  dis- 
tricts, is  frequently  without  professional  efficiency.  Generally 
speaking,  whenever  there  is  a  professional  superintendent  he  is 
subject  to  an  unprofessional  board  which  is  not  without  self- 
confidence  in  all  that  concerns  the  schools.  In  a  word,  we  have  to 
contend  with  the  disadvantages  of  democratic  government,  and 
that  fact  sometimes  obscures  the  other  fact,  particularly  to 
teachers,  that  there  are  more  advantages  than  disadvantages  in 
government  by  the  people. 

The  legal  and  authoritative  prerogatives  of  school  superin- 
tendents, both  in  city  and  country,  is  an  unsettled  matter  in  Ameri- 
can education.  Under  the  prevailing  conditions,  and  conditions 
which  are  inherent  and  not  quickly  to  be  changed,  supervision  is 
highly  important.  It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  the  value  of 


Unsettled  Questions  of  the  Schools.  29 

the  instruction  is  very  dependent  upon  its  professional  qualities 
and  closeness.  Aptness  in  supervisory  leadership  is  not  wholly 
dependent  upon  the  same  qualities  which  make  for  effectiveness 
in  teaching.  Then  how  are  we  to  get  adequate  training  and  ex- 
perience in  a  sufficient  number  of  men  and  women  to  supply  the 
needs?  And  how  are  we  to  treat  superintendents,  concerning 
functions,  responsibilities,  and  compensation,  so  as  to  secure  and 
retain  true  manliness  and  real  womanliness,  decorated  with  the 
qualities  which  vitalize  professional  leadership,  and  shorn  of  the 
attributes  of  mere  schoolma'amishness  in  supervisory  positions  ? 

To  be  a  little  more  specific,  what  are  to  be  the  standard  at- 
tainments of  superintendents  ?  How  much  are  they  to  have  to  do 
with  appointing  "or  removing  teachers,  with  framing  courses  of 
instruction,  with  adopting  text-books,  with  determining  disputes, 
with  regulating  the  progress  of  pupils,  and  with  developing  the 
morale  and  spirit  and  power  of  the  schools?  How  are  they  to  be 
saved  from  humiliation  by  directors  and  trustees  who  have  legal 
prerogatives,  but  no  knowledge  of  the  delicate  and  perplexing  mat- 
ters involved  in  the  administration  upon  modern  lines  of  mixed 
and  ambitious  schools?  How  is  there  to  be  any  supervision 
worthy  of  the  name  in  the  country  districts?  With  the  new 
means  of  transportation  and  communication,  is  it  not  pretty  nearly 
time  to  eliminate  the  "rural  school  problem"  altogether,  to  take  a 
more  advanced  position  concerning  the  professional  standing  of 
the  rural  superintendent  or  commissioner,  and  to  make  supervisory 
districts  in  the  farming  sections  of  a  size  which  will  permit  real 
superintendence  and  enable  all  the  teachers  to  come  in  once  a 
month  and  sit  around  a  table  for  discussion  and  for  instruction? 
Surely  these  are  unsettled  questions  which  will  have  to  be  worked 
out  slowly  in  the  further  evolution  of  our  public  school  system. 

The  size  of  the  school  district  in  the  farming  regions  has 
been  much  in  discussion  for  several  years.  From  the  settlement 
of  the  country  the  school  district  outside  of  the  towns  has  been 
small  enough  to  place  a  school  house  within  walking  distance 
of  every  home.  To  be  sure,  the  walk  has  often  been  a  long  one, 
but  the  whole  world  is  relative  and  it  has  not  seemed  so  long  to 
those  who  had  to  make  it  as  to  the  less  hardy  people  in  the  cities. 
As  fast  as  the  country  was  settled,  or  the  distance  became  im- 
practicable by  reason  of  new  homes,  another  district  was  created 
and  a  new  school  house  built.  Now  there  is  something  of  a 
movement  to  make  larger  districts  and  to  consolidate  districts, 
carrying  the  children  to  and  from  school  when  necessary,  in  order 
to  have  larger  schools,  more  elaborate  buildings,  and  graded 
courses  of  instruction.  This  movement  has  not,  by  any  means, 
gone  so  far  as  to  become  a  policy.  Many  arguments  have  been 
adduced  in  its  favor.  The  ones  opposed  have  not  been  much  pre- 
sented. They  can  not  be  fully  brought  forward  here.  But  such 


30  Lewis  and  Clark  Educational  Congress. 

questions  as  the  following  are  surely  not  impertinent  in  this  con- 
nection : 

Are  we  altogether  certain  that  a  large  school  is  better  than 
a  small  one,  or  a  graded  than  an  ungraded  one?  Is  not  the 
essential  difference  in  the  teaching  and  in  the  supervision,  and 
may  not  efficient  instruction  be  assured  in  the  small  country  dis- 
trict, by  a  course  less  open  to  objection? 

Is  it,  considering  the  exigencies  of  carriage  and  of  weather, 
well  to  require  young  children  to  go  farther  from  home  than  is 
imperative  ? 

Is  it  better  to  centralize  and  complicate  administrative  ma- 
chinery, with  the  necessary  delegation  of  the  authority  for  main- 
taining the  schools  from  the  people  in  primary  assemblages  to 
their  representatives  and  officials,  or  to  keep  control  as  close  to  the 
people  as  possible  and  in  the  simplest  forms  compatible  with 
efficiency?  May  not  the  district  schools  be  expected  to  meet  the 
circumstances  and  the  elementary  needs  of  its  immediate  con- 
stituency very  well  indeed,  and  is  not  the  matter  of  maintaining 
the  school  house  and  of  providing  for  the  modest  expenses  of  the 
schools  likely  to  keep  the  people  more  interested  in  the  schools 
than  they  will  naturally  be  if  the  school  is  more  remote  and  the 
measure  of  their  control  is  lessened?  Can  not  any  real  difficulty 
be  met  by  continuing  elementary  schools  as  heretofore  and  by 
supplementing  them  by  central  high  schools?  Is  it  not  better  to 
continue  the  unit  of  district  school  administration  as  it  prevails 
over  large  areas  of  the  country,  as  far  at  least  as  local  control  over 
the  location  and  the  character  of  the  building  and  providing  for 
expenses  are  concerned,  and  by  making  a  different  unit  for  super- 
visory purposes  which  may  be  large  enough  to  get  a  strong 
enough  superintendent  and  yet  not  so  large  in  miles  as  to  make 
real  supervision  impracticable?  Is  not  the  real  difficulty  in  the 
country  politics  and  the  size  of  the  supervisory  district  and  lack  of 
professional  control  over  the  teacher  and  the  teaching,  rather 
than  in  the  size  of  the  school  district  ?  Is  the  location  of  an  ele- 
mentary school  within  the  smallest  practicable  distance  from  every 
home,  and  the  possession  of  a  popular  meeting  place  by  the 
smallest  hamlets  and  the  cross-roads  regions  to  be  surrendered 
without  the  most  imperative  necessity  or  until  it  is  clearly  proved 
that  the  change  of  plan  does  not  involve  greater  difficulties  than 
any  which  are  now  pending?  These  interrogations  do  not  neces- 
sarily negative  the  policy  of  consolidation,  but  it  seems  to  me  that 
they  are  sufficient  to  suggest  that  it  is  very  much  within  the  zone 
of  unsettled  questions. 

There  is  at  all  times  a  sufficient  supply  of  unsettled  ques- 
tions concerning  the  development  of  a  uniformly  virile  teaching 
service,  both  in  city  and  country.  It  must  be  said  that  teaching- 
does  not  attract  the  larger  number  of  forceful  characters.  The 


Unsettled  Questions  of  the  Schools.  31 

compensation  is  insufficient  and  the  opportunities  for  distinction 
are  held  to  be  lacking.  Men  have  very  generally  ceased  to  pre- 
pare themselves  for  teaching,  and  the  same  is  largely  true  of  the 
more  ambitious  women.  No  one  can  question  that  the  best  in- 
terests of  the  teaching  service  claim  as  much  of  the  masculine  as  of 
the  feminine  mind,  beyond  the  primary  schools  at  least.  No  one 
can  doubt  the  need  of  the  most  aspiring  women  in  the  schools. 
Any  great  work  among  large  numbers  of  both  sexes  requires  the 
co-operative  help  of  both  men  and  women  and  of  the  strongest 
and  most  expectant  men  and  women  in  the  world.  The  ordinary 
conditions  of  the  teaching  service  do  not  make  for  this.  And 
there  has  been  in  recent  years  a  remarkable  educational  develop- 
ment which,  indirectly  but  strongly,  opposes  it.  That  is  the  ex- 
pansion of  the  colleges  and  universities  so  as  to  prepare  for  all 
of  the  professions,  and  the  multiplying  of  vocations  for  educated 
and  aggressive  men  and  women.  Moreover,  the  colleges,  perhaps 
unintentionally,  prepare  for  every  other  vocation  better  than  for 
teaching,  and  their  indirect  influence  is  against  teaching.  Uni- 
versity teachers  are  not  very  familiar  with  modern  work  in  the 
lower  schools,  and  the  interests  of  their  own  special  branches 
displaces  any  serious  concern  for  a  unified  organization  or  an  all 
around  service  in  the  schools  below.  They  are  not  only  more 
interested  in  the  pupils  who  are  going  to  college  than  in  those  who 
are  not,  but  also  in  the  pupils  who  are  headed  for  their  depart^ 
ments  more  than  in  those  who  are  likely  to  elect  other  branches 
for  future  study.  All  this  is  turning  nearly  all  the  men  and  many 
of  the  best  women,  who  in  other  times  would  have  looked  to 
teaching  as  a  vocation,  to  other  work,  and  it  is  lessening  the  in- 
dependence and  effectiveness  of  the  teaching  force  to  a  degree 
which  is  hardly  compensated  for  by  the  larger  knowledge  of 
educational  principles  and  the  improved  methods  of  the  modern 
agencies  for  training  teachers.  The  live  question  is,  how  are  we 
to  assure  a  teaching  force  which  shall  be  free  from  specially  de- 
fective factors  and  generally  as  capable  and  spirited  and  aggres- 
sive as  that  which  manages  the  other  great,  though  less  important, 
intellectual  activities  of  the  nation?  Always  a  pressing  ques- 
tion, the  growing  importance  and  the  growing  difficulties  of  the 
subject  make  it  more  weighty  now  than  at  any  previous  time. 

However  important  the  form  of  the  legal  school  organiza- 
tion, and  however  imperative  the  character  of  the  men  and  women 
who  teach  the  schools,  there  is  nothing  about  the  schools  so  vital 
and,  it  may  also  be  said,  so  difficult,  as  a  sound  determination  of 
what  work  the  schools  shall  do. 

The  minister  of  education  in  other  countries  does  not  have 
a  very  hard  time  deciding  what  the  primary  Schools  shall  do  and 
how  it  shall  be  done.  He  does  it  alone.  He  follows  either  the 
law  or  long  and  unchangeable  usage.  The  teachers  are  men  and 


32  Lewis  and  Clark  Educational  Congress. 

the  tenure  of  position  is  for  life.  Every  teacher  obeys  the  min- 
ister's directions  without  question.  He  has  to  provide  a  simple 
curriculum  for  children  of  the  peasant  class  who  expect  to  live 
exactly  as  their  fathers  have  lived.  The  work  is  not  to  inspire 
children  to  do  their  best  and  rise  to  high  places  among  their  fel- 
lows; it  is  not  to  fit  them  for  the  work  of  advanced  schools;  it 
is  to  drill  them  to  read  and  write  and  work  through  very  or- 
dinary and  dead-level  lives.  It  satisfies  the  demands  of  the  rather 
slow-going  and  monotonous  life  of  the  people  whom  these  foreign 
schools  serve. 

It  is  wholly  different  in  America.  Our  schools  are  not  shaped 
and  managed  by  a  minister,  a  cabinet,  or  a  monarch,  but  by  the 
people.  The  common  thought  and  general  usage  have  settled  the 
outlines  of  the  system.  Each  community  fills  in  the  details  and 
carries  them  as  far  as  it  will.  Everybody  has  a  proprietary 
interest  in  the  schools.  The  administration  is  through  popular 
elections,  and  changes  in  administration  are  frequent.  Changes 
in  the  teaching  force  are  frequent  also.  There  is  not  much  re- 
sistive power.  Every  one  with  a  project  thinks  the  schools  ought 
to  carry  it  out.  It  is  not  so  hard  for  one  with  a  scheme  to  load 
it  upon  the  schools  as  it  is  for  an  administrative  officer  or  a  teacher 
to  keep  it  out.  People  who  mean  well,  but  who  are  without  any 
grasp  of  the  general  problem,  often  turn  the  course  of  the  schools 
aside  from  its  ordinary  and  natural  channel. 

From  the  standpoint  of  school  administration,  every  Ameri- 
can child  is  bred  in  the  purple.  He  is  to  have  everything  that 
the  richest  child  in  the  world  can  have  in  the  way  of  instruction 
if  he  will  take  it,  and  all  of  the  fixed  influences,  direct  and  in- 
direct, censure  him  if  he  neglects  to  take  it.  Every  boy  must 
infer  from  all  he  hears  that  he  will  be  discredited  unless  he  follows 
an  exclusively  intellectual  pursuit,  and  every  girl  must  believe 
that  her  happiness  depends  upon  her  becoming  literary  and  know- 
ing about  art  and  the  opera,  and  wearing  silks  and  directing 
servants — when  the  silks  are  often  elusive  and  always  illusory 
and  the  servants  are  more  elusive  and  illusory  still. 

All  classes  mix  in  our  schools.  As  I  passed  a  ward  school 
the  other  morning  I  saw  two  little  girls,  whom  I  recognized,  pass 
in  at  the  same  time.  One  was  the  daughter  of  a  prominent 
officer  of  the  state  and  the  other  was  the  daughter  of  my  office 
messenger.  The  association  was  quite  as  good  for  the  child  in 
the  higher  social  station  as  for  the  one  in  the  lower.  It  will  do 
something  to  keep  the  first  sane.  The  second  will  be  most  in- 
fluenced by  the  foibles  and  fancies  rather  than  by  the  substance 
and  the  real  graces  of  the  other. 

At  the  annual  meeting  in  a  little  school  district,  both  rich  and 
rural,  on  Long  Island,  held  the  other  day,  the  accomplished  wife 
of  one  of  the  wealthiest  men  of  the  country,  whose  name  is 


Unsettled  Questions  of  the  Schools.  33 

familiar  to  all,  and  the  village  liverykeeper  were  elected  trustees 
of  the  district  school.  There  was  something  of  a  contest,  and 
they  were  both  supported  by  the  same  votes.  The  woman  stood 
for  something  very  decisive  in  the  betterment  of  the  school.  It 
was  an  admirable  result.  They  will  doubtless  be  of  substantial 
service  to  each  other  and  to  the  public  in  caring  for  the  school. 
Each  will  surely  learn  something  worth  knowing  from  the  other. 
In  a  common  service  they  will  be  more  tolerant  of  each  other,  and 
a  rational  service  may  lead  two  lots  or  "bunches"  of  people  to  see 
more  that  they  like  in  each  other  than  they  had  before  realized. 
In  an  European  school,  or  in  the  management  of  one,  such  asso- 
ciations would  be  wholly  impossible  and  the  manifest  advantage 
would  be  absent.  But  the  European  political  and  educational 
systems  are  not  intended  to  bind  classes  together  or  to  give  every 
one  an  equal  chance  with  every  other. 

We  have  a  continuous  and  pretty  well  articulated  school  sys- 
tem, from  the  kindergarten  to  the  university.  Teachers  and  chil- 
dren are  continually  enjoined  to  be  thinking  of  the  next  school 
above.  A  teacher  whose  pupils  do  not  pass  is  discredited.  A 
child  who  does  not  pass  is  in  peril  of  being  eternally  lost.  This 
may  not  be  really  so  dreadful  to  the  individual  teacher  and  the  in- 
dividual child,  though  each  thinks  it  is.  It  may  be  as  well  to 
have  some  pressure  as  to  have  everything  fall  down  and  every- 
body become  lackadaisical  for  the  want  of  attention.  But  does  it 
not  inevitably  attach  more  significance  to  the  upper  than  to  the 
middle  schools?  Does  it  not  assume  that  the  road  to  college  and 
the  road  to  glory  are  all  the  same? 

And  are  they?  No  thinking  man  can  doubt  the  self-satisfac- 
tion and  enlarged  intellectual  enjoyment  which  commonly  result 
from  college  training.  No  one  will  be  disposed  to  deny  the  ad- 
vantage which  the  liberally  educated  and  disciplined  mind  has  in 
severe  mental  work  and  particularly  in  intellectual  combat.  No 
one  can  fail  to  see  how  the  higher  institutions  break  out  new 
roads  and  lead  the  thinking  of  the  world  to  higher  planes.  And 
surely  no  school  man  can  ignore  the  fact  that  the  vitalizing,  the 
energizing,  and  the  steadying  of  the  lower  schools  must  necessarily 
come  from  the  higher  schools.  But  there  are  those  who  will  deny 
that  it  is  desirable  that  all  children  shall  go  to  college.  There 
are  enough  who  do  not  think  that  it  is  better  to  have  a  college 
degree  and  admission  to  a  profession,  with  little  adaptation  to  it 
and  little  to  do  after  it,  than  it  is  to  master  a  manual  vocation  and 
have  plenty  to  do.  There  are  folks  in  the  world  who  dare  to 
suspect  that  many  a  one  becomes  really  unbalanced  and  pretty 
nearly  useless  through  college  teaching  and  college  study,  when 
he  might  have  been  happy  and  useful  if  conditions  and  normal 
inclinations  had  been  regarded  and  if  he  had  found  himself  in  a 
work  where  he  could  have  had  the  reward  and  the  joy  which 

2 


34  Lewis  and  Clark  Educational  Congress. 

come  from  accomplishing  things.  There  are  those  who  even: 
venture  to  suspect  that  men  and  women  with  work  which  they 
love  and  the  steadiness  and  balance  and  respect  which  they  gain 
by  doing  it  are  safer  citizens  and  more  attractive  characters  than 
men  and  women  who  have  been  through  the  schools  without  be- 
ing able  to  put  the  training  of  the  schools  to  the  doing  of  things 
which  are  of  moment  to  the  world. 

It  is  not  a  matter  of  the  value  of  the  higher  learning  to  the 
world  at  large;  it  is  a  matter  of  the  power  and  purpose  of  each 
individual  to  make  it  of  most  use  to  himself.  The  unambitious 
or  the  incapable  rich,  who  are  not  in  danger  of  doing  much  any- 
way, may  as  well  go  to  college,  if  they  can  be  kept  from  ruining 
the  colleges  while  there.  The  rich  who  have  work  and  sand  in 
them  will  ordinarily  seize  upon  college  training  while  they  enlarge 
the  substance  and  illustrate  the  point  and  power  of  it.  The  poor 
must  balance  values ;  they  will  coolly  calculate  the  worth  of  it  to 
any  plans  which  they  may  have,  or  they  will  leave  it  to  chance 
and  take  whatever  the  consequences  may  be.  If  there  is  some- 
thing like  a  definite  purpose  in  mind,  if  the  college  training  is 
put  to  a  real  use,  the  consequence  will  be  a  finished  and  resource- 
ful character,  and  the  harder  the  work  and  the  more  the  sacrifices, 
the  stronger  and  the  more  dependable  the  character  will  be.  If, 
however,  there  is  no  serious  plan  or  purpose  about  it  all,  no  power 
to  appreciate  and  adapt  the  college  training  and  discipline,  the 
result  will  be  a  past  master  in  dudism  so  long  as  one  has  the 
money  to  sustain  the  role,  or  a  misfit  and  partial,  or  total,  failure 
when  one  must  earn  his  living. 

The  percentage  of  men  who  have  reached  the  highest  posi- 
tions of  leadership  and  influence  without  the  training  of  the  most 
advanced  schools,  as  compared  with  those  who  have  had  that 
advantage,  is  surprisingly  large.  It  is  because  they  have  had  the 
stuff  in  them  and  it  has  been  developed  and  seasoned  in  life.  They 
have  not  depended  upon  books  or  been  largely  controlled  by 
theories ;  they  have  squared  their  lives  with  the  actualities  of  liv- 
ing ;  they  have  been  both  patient  and  aggressive ;  they  have  found 
the  way  to  accomplish  something  worth  while.  It  was  something 
not  set  forth  in  the  books.  But  this  has  been  suggestive  to  the 
colleges  and  the  courses  of  study,  the  characteristics  of  teachers, 
the  methods  of  instruction,  and  the  atmosphere  of  the  places  have 
been  so  radically  modified  in  the  interests  of  doing  as  against 
talking,  that,  aside  from  the  increased  number  of  students  who 
go  to  college,  the  advantages  to  the  college  man  as  against  the 
other  is  very  substantially  enlarged.  And,  of  course,  with  an 
independent,  sane,  and  balanced  character,  having  the  elements 
of  strength  and  success  anyway,  the  advantages  of  a  college  train- 
ing can  not  be  overestimated. 


Unsettled  Questions  of  the  Schools.  35 

It  is  not  true  that  good  citizenship  is  gauged  by  the  depth  of 
culturing  study  or  familiarity  with  philosophical  theory.  It  rests 
upon  the  balanced  sense  which  is  the  joint  product  of  decent 
breeding,  of  familiarity  with  men  and  things,  and  of  the  labor 
which  shows  in  things  accomplished,  either  manual  or  intellectual, 
and  in  sweat  upon  the  brow.  The  man  who  mends  your  shoes 
or  makes  your  clothes  is  likely  to  average  just  as  safe  and  potential 
a  citizen  as  the  one  who  tries  to  train  your  refractory  stomach,  the 
one  who  fills  you  up  with  economic  theory,  or  the  one  who  sup- 
plies theological  deductions  to  your  mystified  soul.  The  one  who 
produces  physical  results  in  life  is  certainly  no  less  to  be  counted 
upon  .than  the  one  who  writes  the  more  freely  when  he  is  not 
obliged  to  be  troubled  with  any  facts. 

These  considerations  are  at  the  bottom  of  the  widespread 
criticism  against  our  public  educational  system.  Everybody 
worth  considering  knows  that  the  mere  ability  to  read  and  write 
is  no  adequate  equipment  for  efficiency  in  our  complex  life,  but 
everybody  also  knows  that  no  system  of  training,  no  matter  how 
elaborate,  which  leads  inevitably  to  pursuits  which  are  exclusively 
intellectual  or  only  culturing,  will  sustain  our  complex  civilization. 
It  is  right  here  that  the  plan  and  scope  of  our  Western  univer- 
sities, very  largely  state  universities,  is  pushing  them  strongly  to 
the  front  rank  in  American  higher  education.  The  feeling  is 
very  common  that  there  is  no  sufficient  reason  why  the  courses 
of  study  and  the  influences  of  the  lower  schools  should  lead  de- 
cisively to  the  higher  institutions  which  are  only  culturing  or 
professional,  or  to  those  departments  of  universities  which  are 
essentially  so.  There  is  a  strong  and  justifiable  sentiment  that 
the  work  of  the  elementary  and  secondary  schools  does  not  sup- 
port the  industrial  as  well  as  the  classical  or  professional  depart- 
ments in  the  universities  which  have  provided  for  all  phases  of 
human  learning.  There  is  a  strong  and  sustained  sentiment  that 
the  elementary  schools  ought  to  do  more  for  the  pupils  who  are 
not  going  to  college  at  all,  if  the  advantages  of  our  popular  sys- 
tem of  education  are  to  be  equal  for  all.  And  there  is  a  decided 
and  a  justifiable  belief  that  the  elementary  schools,  taken  as  a 
whole,  train  for  versatility  more  than  for  exactness,  and  that — 
either  because  of  this  or  because  they  have  been  loaded  with  too 
much,  or  both — they  do  not  turn  out  pupils  who  can  do  any 
definite  thing  very  satisfactorily  when  they  must  go  to  work. 

If  I  interpret  the  situation  correctly,  the  common  sentiment 
of  the  country  fully  sympathizes  with  the  old-line  literary  col- 
leges. It  feels  that  there  is  a  place  for  them,  and  wishes  them 
well.  It  has  abundantly  demonstrated  its  decisive  support  of 
university  training  in  aid  of  the  industries.  But  it  demands  that 
the  elementary  training  shall  lead  more  decisively  to  the  industries 
and  to  business,  whether  pupils  are  going  to  the  advanced  schools 


36  Lewis  and  Clark  Educational  Congress. 

or  are  going  to  work ;  and  that  the  work  of  the  lower  schools  shall 
be  sufficiently  concentrated  and  made  sufficiently  exact  to  support 
the  expectation  that  pupils  shall  be  able  to  read  intelligently,  write 
legibly,  perform  mathematical  processes  readily  and  correctly, 
and  entertain  serious  notions  of  real  work  when  they  leave  the 
schools.  The  objection  is  not  that  the  schools  do  other  things, 
but  that  they  do  not  do  these  things  before  the  other  things,  and 
that  the  result  amounts  to  a  discrimination  against  the  industrial 
masses  and  the  very  ones  who  stand  most  in  need  of  free  educa- 
tion. 

Then  the  whole  question  as  to  what  the  schools  shall  do  is 
an  open  one.  Apparently,  they  must  have  less,  rather  than  more, 
to  do.  If  not,  then  a  large  part  of  the  children  must  have  less. 
It  would  seem  that  there  will  have  to  be  more  differentiation  of 
courses,  with  reference  to  future  living.  There  will  have  to  be 
more  drill  and  more  firmness  of  treatment  in  the  purely  elemen- 
tary work  at  least.  The  work  will  have  to  be  adapted  to  years 
so  that  whenever  a  child  leaves  school  he  may  be  able  to  do  very 
well  what  the  world  may  justly  expect  of  one  of  his  age."  There 
will  have  to  be  more  exact  attention  to  present  actualities  than  to 
remote  possibilities.  It  would  not  be  strange  if  the  lower  schools 
were  yet  required  to  give  every  child  not  only  the  means  of  in- 
forming himself  and  of  expressing  himself,  but  also  a  definite 
trade  or  vocation  through  which  he  may  earn  a  living.  This 
would  be  doing  less  for  the  children  who  will  never  go  to  college 
than  most  of  the  larger  towns  are  already  doing  for  those  who  go 
to  the  high  school,  or  than  most  of  the  states  are  already  doing 
for  the  thousands  who  go  to  the  state  universities. 

Here  is  the  great,  overwhelming,  and  difficult  question  in 
American  education.  I  surely  could  not  settle  it.  We  might 
discuss  it  in  this  Congress  for  a  month,  and  we  could  not  settle  it. 
It  is  to  be  settled  out  of  the  abundant  experience,  the  democratic 
purpose,  and  through,  the  natural  and  logical  unfolding  of  the 
free  life  of  the  nation. 

There  is  another  unsettled  question,  and  clearly  a  very  serious 
one,  to  which  I  must  advert.  It  has  reference  to  nonattendance 
upon  the  schools.  It  will  not  do  to  assume  that  all  in  this  free 
country  who  ought  to  go  to  school  will  do  so.  All  parents  are 
not  anxious  about  the  educational  welfare  of  their  children.  Some 
parents  and  children  will  wallow  in  ignorance  unless  they  are 
punished  for  not  taking  advantage  of  the  schools.  And  the 
worst  of  it  is  that  the  very  common  sentiment  seems  to  be  seriously 
indifferent  to  the  compulsion. 

The  most  recent  data  available  to  me  shows  the  percentage 
of  illiterate  electors  in  England  to  be  .009  per  cent,  and  the  per- 
centage of  illiterate  recruits  in  the  German  army  to  be  .05  per 
cent.  In  France  4.4  per  cent  of  men  and  6.3  per. cent  of  women 


Unsettled  Questions  of  the  Schools.  37 

signed  the  marriage  register  with  a  cross.  In  Switzerland  .33 
per  cent  of  the  men  entering  the  military  service  were  illiterate. 
The  last  report  of  illiterate  conscripts  in  the  army  of  Holland 
shows  that  it  was  2.1  per  cent  and  in  the  army  of  Sweden  it  was 
.08  per  cent. 

Now  let  us  examine  the  figures  of  the  United  States  census  of 
1900,  showing  the  percentage  of  illiteracy  among  males  of  -voting 
age  in  the  United  States.  In  the  country  at  large  it  was  10.9 
per  cent.  In  the  North  Atlantic  division  it  was  6.8  per  cent;  in 
the  South  Atlantic  division  it  was  24.5  per  cent;  in  the  North 
central  division  it  was  4.9  per  cent;  in  the  South  Central  division 
it  was  23.3  per  cent,  and  in  the  Western  division  it  was  6.7  per 
cent.  That  is,  in  no  one  of  these  great  divisions  of  our  country 
is  the  showing  so  favorable  as  in  any  one  of  the  countries  I  have 
named,  and  generally  speaking  it  is  so  much  worse  as  to  shame  us. 

Take  several  typical  states  from  east  to  west:  In  Massa- 
chusetts the  percentage  of  illiterate  potential  voters  is  6.4;  in  New 
York,  5.9 ;  in  Ohio,  4.8 ;  in  Illinois,  4.8 ;  in  Iowa,  2.7 ;  in  Nebraska, 
2.5 ;  in  Colorado,  4.1 ;  in  Montana,  6.1 ;  in  California,  6.2,  and  in 
Oregon,  4.8.  Taking  states  from  north  to  south:  In  Michigan 
it  is  5.5 ;  in  Indiana,  5.6  ;  in  Kentucky,  18.8 ;  in  Tennessee,  21.7 ; 
in  Alabama,  33.7,  and  in  Georgia,  31.6.  In  no  American  state 
is  the  showing  so  satisfactory  as  in  England,  in  the  German  Em- 
pire, in  Switzerland,  in  Holland,  or  in  the  Scandinavian  countries. 

I  can  not  analyze  and  exploit  this  all-important  subject  here 
as  I  shall  endeavor  to  do  in  another  place  at  no  distant  day.  But 
here  it  may  be  said  that  there  is  abundant  evidence  of  a  serious 
difficulty  in  the  indifference  of  public  sentiment  or  in  the  character 
of  our  educational  legislation  or  in  the  execution  of  it.  And  it 
may  be  added  that,  no  matter  how  great  our  revenues  or  our 
energy  or  our  genius  for  doing  things,  no  matter  how  rich,  how 
strong,  how  commercially  successful  we  become,  we  shall  not 
honor  ourselves  nor  illustrate  the  advantage  of  democratic  gov- 
ernment to  other  peoples  until  as  many  of  our  people  as  of  theirs 
are  taught  to  read  and  write.  Whether  we  can  do  it  or  not  is  a 
very  large  matter  for  American  statesmen,  and  an  unsettled  and 
grave  question  in  educational  administration. 

There  is  still  another  matter  pertinent  to  our  subject,  and 
with  a  reference  to  that  I  shall  release  your  patient  attention. 
There  is  a  frequently  expressed  disposition  to  hold  the  schools 
responsible  for  about  everything  that  goes  wrong  in  the  country. 
If  there  is  an  epidemic  of  crime,  or  an  outbreak  of  objectionable 
business  methods,  or  any  other  distinct  evidence  of  widespread 
moral  turpitude,  or  if  all  boys  and  girls  are  not  more  completely 
ready  for  a  swifter  and  more  complex  life  than  was  ever  ex- 
pected in  all  history  before— the  schools  are  taken  to  task  for  it. 


38  Lewis  and  Clark  Educational  Congress. 

Every  step  and  every  influence  of  the  common  schools  make 
for  character.  It  is  true  that  religious  instruction  is  not  very  com- 
mon— not  as  common  as  it  used  to  be — but  it  is  also  true  that 
it  is  as  common  as  denominational  opposition  •  will  permit. 
There  is  nothing  done  that  does  not  contribute  to  cleanness  and 
decency  in  living,  to  exactness  and  correctness  in  thinking,  and  to 
refinement  and  trueness  in  feeling.  Everything  is  done  in  these 
directions  up  to  the  very  limits  of  opportunity. 

It  is  a  fundamental  policy  of  this  country  that  political  officers 
shall  not  meddle  with  denominational  instruction,  and  that 
ecclesiastical  officers  shall  not  bend  the  policies  of  the  state  to 
denominational  ends.  It  is  not  because  of  any  indifference  to  re- 
ligion, but  because  of  the  necessities  of  the  case  in  a  cosmopolitan 
population  of  freemen  and  in  a  state  which  is  opposed  to  all 
favoritism  and  stands  for  equal  and  exact  justice  for  all.  This 
policy  leaves  religious  teaching  to  the  family  and  to  the  church, 
unless  the  universal  consent  invites  the  common  schools  to  give  it. 
And  it  seems  to  me  that  between  the  schools,  and  the  churches 
with  their  auxiliary  agencies,  and  the  family  life,  the  children  are 
being  trained  in  free  religion  and  sound  morals  about  as  well  as 
can  be  expected  and  quite  as  well  as  in  any  days  of  yore.  In- 
deed, it  seems  to  me  that  our  democratic  life  and  our  free  and 
rational  teaching  are  developing  a  people  with  more  of  the  ele- 
ments of  undefiled  religion  and  with  less  of  the  factors  which 
have  burdened  true  religion  than  has  been  common  in  other  lands 
and  in  other  days.  And  in  this  the  common  schools  are  doing 
all  that  the  sound  moral  purpose  of  the  country  will  sustain  and 
all  that  the  settled  political  theory  of  the  country  will  permit. 

But  there  is  a  difficulty,  extended  and  discouraging,  outside 
of  the  schools.  It  operates  in  spite  of  the  schools.  It  grows  out 
of  the  American  disposition  to  place  freedom  above  security,  to 
protect  liberty  at  all  hazards,  and  take  the  chances  of  license  and 
its  consequences. 

It  seems  to  me  that  many  of  the  common  usages  and  some  of 
the  most  conspicuous  object  lessons  in  the  country  make  for  dis- 
honesty rather  than  integrity.  An  infinite  number  of  people  have 
become  what  once  would  have  been  thought  exceedingly  rich. 
When  one  becomes  half-way  rich  he  becomes  money-mad  and  re- 
sorts to  methods  for  overreaching  all  the  rest  with  an  ingenuity 
and  fiendishness  which  out-devils  the  devil  himself.  There  is 
lack  of  law  and  lack  of  prosecutors  to  stop  him,  and  his  success 
in  gaining  money  by  immoral  methods  and  in  keeping  out  of 
jail — through  the  help  of  astute  lawyers  and  abhorrent  forces — 
predisposes  too  many  of  the  rest  to  copy  his  example.  Some 
phase  of  this  thing  is  everywhere  in  the  land  and  it  corrupts  the 
life,  particularly  the  young  life,  of  the  country.  Are  the  schools 
responsible  for  that  ? 


Unsettled  Questions  of  the  Schools.  39 

Again,  the  railroads  are  great  educators.  They  educate  us 
in  much  that  is  good,  and  also  in  much  that  is  bad.  They  train 
us  in  promptness — and  in  evasiveness.  The  laws  concerning 
them  are  not  yet  very  well  settled.  They  observe  no  moral  re- 
straints not  fixed  by  law,  and  they  are  past  masters  in  the  art  of 
changing  and  evading  the  laws  which  they  dislike.  Men  who  are 
all  that  can  be  desired  in  their  individual  characters  are  often  all 
that  is  undesirable  in  corporation  service.  But  this  is  not  all;  and 
perhaps  it  is  not  the  worst.  They  assume  that  every  one  else 
will  violate  or  evade  the  law  if  he  dare.  For  example,  they  as- 
sume that  everybody  will  steal  from  them,  and,  with  something 
of  a  fellow  feeling  for  those  who  do,  the  matter  is  soon  dropped 
when  they  find  it  out.  They  closely  inspect  and  often  outrage 
honest  people  who  board  their  trains.  When  they  find  one  on 
their  trains  wrongfully,  they  put  him  off  and  that  is  the  end  of  it. 
The  decent  folk  resent  the  shabby  treatment  and  are  predisposed 
to  retaliate,  and  the  indecent  folk  get  off  so  easily  that  they 
ctre  predisposed  to  try  it  again.  Upon  an  European  railroad 
every  one  is  treated  with  politeness.  It  is  assumed  that  one  who 
boards  a  train  has  the  right.  If  one  is  found  on  board  without  a 
ticket  or  money  he  is  carried  to  the  next  station  and  put  in  jail. 
The  road  and  the  public  prosecutors  make  punishment  sure  and 
severe.  The  honest  people  get  decent  treatment  and  the  dis- 
honest ones  get  the  punishment  they  deserve.  It  educates  in  in- 
tegrity more  than  we  are  accustomed  to  think.  It  is  particularly 
impressive  upon  the  ignorant  and  Upon  the  young.  If,  then, 
native  honesty,  or  at  least,  correct  living,  is  more  common  among 
the  masses  of  an  European  than  of  an  American  city,  are  the 
American  schools  responsible  for  it? 

Yet  again,  nothing  is  a  legal  crime  until  a  statute  makes  it  so. 
Criminal  procedure  rests  upon  legislative  acts  and  not  upon  the 
common  law.  The  regulation  and  punishment  of  crime  is  far 
from  settled.  It  has  not  kept  pace  with  the  progress  of  the 
country.  It  is  so  dilatory  and  uncertain  as  to  shame  us.  Money 
can  defer  punishment  indefinitely  except  in  the  most  flagrant  and 
noted  cases — and  often,  indeed,  in  those.  Public  officers  charged 
with  prosecutions  are  sometimes  found  dividing  the  plunder  with 
thieves  in  consideration  of  immunity  from  punishment.  The 
thing  pervades  our  affairs  broadly  and  makes  a  vicious  impress 
upon  many  lives. 

Here  is  a  great  matter  outside  of  the  schools  which  is  un- 
settled and  which  will  have  to  be  settled.  It  is  wholly  unfair  to 
charge  any  lack  of  moral  character  or  of  common  honesty  which 
may  be  discerned  in  the  country  to  the  plan  and  scope  of  the  educa- 
tional system.  When  the  law  is  perfected  and  is  observed,  when 
all  may  know  that  it  will  be  speedy  and  sure  and  equal  in  its  ap- 
plication to  all,  the  matter  of  correct  living  and  of  moral  character 


40  Lewis  and  Clark  Educational  Congress. 

in  this  country  seems  likely  to  rest  upon  as  sure  a  foundation  as 
in  any  other  country.  The  difficulty  in  this  behalf  seems  to  lie 
in  the  rapid  growth  in  population,  in  the  overwhelming  changes  in 
manner  of  life,  and  in  the  backwardness  of  legal  and  administra- 
tive systems,  rather  than  in  fundamental  political  principles  or 
in  the  plan  and  scheme  of  the  schools. 

The  men  and  women  of  the  schools  are  so  accustomed  to 
settle  things  that  they  are  rather  predisposed  to  shoulder  all  the 
burdens  that  are  shied  at  them  and  determine  all  the  hard  problems 
that  come  up.  The  unsettled  questions  that  are  legitimately  and 
necessarily  upon  us  are  many  enough  and  heavy  enough.  If  we 
throw  back  upon  the  country  the  hard  nuts  which  are  not  ours  at 
all,  if  we  resent  the  constant  attempt  to  use  the  schools  for  special 
ends,  if  we  confine  them  to  what  they  must  do  to  vindicate  our 
political  and  educational  theories  and  justify  the  money  they 
cost,  we  shall  have  quite  enough  to  do.-  But  we  shall  be  able  to 
do  it.  As  some  matters  that  are  outside  of  the  schools  approach 
solution,  the  unsettled  questions  that  are  necessarily  inside  of  the 
schools  will  settle  more  easily. 

The  nation  is  just  beginning  to  realize  that  the  fundamental 
political  principle  which  holds  all  men  and  women  equal  before 
the  law,  with  the  now  well  developed  national  policy  which  pro- 
vides free  instruction  to  the  very  limits  of  human  knowledge  to  all 
who  will  come  and  take  it,  involves  an  expense  of  unexpected 
magnitude  and  presents  questions  of  unprecedented  difficulty  in 
organization  and  administration.  But  there  will  be  no  turning 
back.  More  cheerfully  than  the  people  meet  any  other  tax,  more 
cheerfully  than  any  other  people  ever  met  any  tax  not  vital  to  the 
national  defense  and  the  saving  of  lives,  the  American  people 
supply  and  will  supply  the  funds  for  universal  and  liberal  educa- 
tion. The  difficulties  will  not  be  met  in  a  year;  they  will  never 
be  settled  in  a  corner.  They  will  be  solved  by  the  rational  projec- 
tion of  the  political  theories  which  are  the  inspiration  and  the 
guide  of  the  nation's  life.  They  will  be  met  with  courage  and 
confidence,  even  with  wit  and  enthusiasm.  They  will  be  settled 
through  discussion,  and  yet  more  through  experience.  Not  all 
that  we  plan  will  come  to  pass.  The  unexpected  will  often  hap- 
pen, and  in  time  we  are  likely  to  see  that  the  unexpected  is  better 
than  the  plan  we  made.  The  logically  progressive  purpose  of 
our  millions  of  freemen,  the  gradually  unfolding  scheme  of  our 
nation's  mission  in  the  world,  advancing  in  accord  with  a  plan 
that  is  more  than  human,  will  overcome  difficulties  and  break  out 
the  roads  for  a  sane  and  balanced  system  of  education  which  \vill 
give  most  to  the  nation  through  the  opportunity  it  will  hold  out 
and  the  encouragement  it  will  give  to  every  one. 


Relation  of  Pacific  Coast  to  Education  in  Orient.  41 

THE  RELATION  OF  THE  PACIFIC  COAST  TO  EDUCA- 
TION IN  THE  ORIENT. 

By  BENJAMIN  IDE  WHEELER. 

The  ends  of  the  earth  at  last  have  met.  They  have  met  and 
joined  on  the  American  continent  midway  between  the  Asiatic 
east  and  the  European  west.  A  place  and  shelter  for  the  meeting 
has  been  prepared  in  the  form  of  a  nation  blended  out  of  all  the 
bloods  of  mankind,  and  builded  neither  on  race  nor  the  cults  of 
kinship,  but  on  the  rights  of  man.  This  much  human  society  has 
done,  and  geography  has  enforced  the  work  by  setting  the  abode 
of  this  nation  between  the  two  world-seas  whose  free  highways 
make  their  side  of  the  globe  the  easier  way  from  the  old  Occident 
to  the  old  Orient.  Four  hundred  years  after  the  Cabots  touched 
the  Atlantic  hem  of  North  America  and  one  hundred  years  after 
Lewis  and  Clark  brought  the  Cabots'  work  to  fulfillment  in  carry- 
ing the  Anglo-Saxon  name  through  to  the  Pacific  hem,  in  the  year 
of  our  Lord,  1905,  delegates  of  the  greatest  European  empire 
followed  the  track  of  the  sun  a  hundred  degrees  of  longitude 
westward  and  delegates  of  the  most  vigorous  Eastern  power  faced 
the  sun  and  journeyed  one  hundred  and  thirty  degrees  eastward 
until  they  met  in  Portsmouth,  and  if  they  had  reversed  the  division 
of  distance  it  would  have  been  in  Portland — in  either  case  upon 
a  continent  prepared  for  them  by  collusion  between  the  separate 
developments  of  government  and  of  geography,  upon  a  continent 
which  was  no  other  than  that  unexpected  dyke  of  land  which  only 
four  centuries  ago  suddenly  arose  out  of  the  ocean's  mist,  and 
planted  itself  upon -the  map  to  block  Columbus'  way,  when  he 
sought  the  Orient  by  reversing  the  direction  of  the  old-time  cara- 
van routes. 

The  arteries  of  empire  and  commerce  in  the  twentieth  cen- 
tury world  pulse  through  the  two  great  oceans.  The  great  powers 
are  those  that  maintain  great  navies.  The  ancient  world  looked 
inward  with  its  back  to  the  oceans  and  dealt  with  the  land  and 
inland  seas.  Power  was  quoted  in  terms  of  armies,  and  what 
were  called  fleets  were  merely  armies  fighting  from  scows  in  land- 
locked waters. 

The  ancient  world  in  its  highest  organization  consisted  of  two 
mutually  exclusive  parts,  on  the  one  hand  Europe  with  Moham- 
medan Asia  and  Africa,  on  the  other  India  and  China.  Between 
the  two  there  was  exchange  of  goods  at  arm's  length,  but  no  ex- 
change of  ideas  or  institutions.  The  Occident  and  the  Orient 
dwelt  apart  and  developed  as  antitheses.  They  never  have  under- 
stood each  other;  the  fundamental  concepts  of  the  life-thought 
differ  toto  coelo. 


42  Lewis  and  Clark  Educational  Congress. 

The  old  Occident,  Europe  and  Mohammedan  Asia  and  Africa, 
was  established  in  a  blend  of  two  minor  antitheses,  Europe  and 
the  nearer  East.  The  Mediterranean  was  the  mixing  pot,  Con- 
stantinople was  the  label  and  seal.  The  nearer  East  had  the 
sources  of  its  life  in  the  civilizations  of  the  two  great  river-valleys 
of  the  Nile  and  the  Euphrates.  Europe  assorted  its  races  by 
means  of  its  rivers,  pre-eminently  the  Volga,  the  Dnieper,  the 
Vistula,  the  Elbe,  the  Danube,  the  Rhine,  the  Seine,  the  Rhone,  • 
and  the  Po ;  and  by  its  two  southern  peninsulas,  Greece  and  Italy, 
inserted  the  wick  into  the  oil  of  the  greater  world  civilization. 
Greece  discovered  the  creative  freedom  of  the  human  mind,  and 
established  thereon  the  only  human  freedom  that  was  ever  worth 
the  while;  Palestine  yielded  faith  in  the  goodness  and  power  of  the 
single  God;  Rome  provided  for  this  mind  and  spirit  the  body  of 
law  and  government,  and  out  of  the  trinity  arose  the  Mediter- 
ranean civilization  we  call  European,  of  which  our  history,  politics, 
art,  thought,  ethics,  religion,  in  fact,  we  all  of  us  in  all  our  spiritual 
being  and  environment  are  thus  far  an  established  part. 

Over  against  this  Mediterranean  Occident  has  stood  through 
all  the  ages  unperturbed  and  impenetrable  the  incomprehensible 
Orient  of  India  and  China.  The  West  could  only  understand  their 
spices ;  not  their  salt.  And  for  the  spices  and  other  spicy  wares 
the  dull  camels  tramped  the  Kashgar  and  the  Kabul  routes 
through  the  dark  and  unrecorded  centuries,  the  only  bond  be- 
tween the  two  great  world-halves  which  were  and  are  and  mayhap 
always  shall  be.  Ninevah  and  Trebizond,  Babylon,  Tyre  and 
Sidon  were  built  of  the  drippings  of  this  inter-world-half  trade ; 
then  when  it  diverged  through  the  Red  Sea,  Alexandria  was  en- 
riched by  it ;  and  later  when  the  Saracens  intervened  to  disturb 
the  old  routes,  Venice  and  Genoa  became  its  monuments,  and 
last  of  all  with  the  discovery  of  the  route  round  the  Cape  of  Good 
Hope  nations  were  enriched,  first  Portugal,  then  Holland,  then 
England.  It  was.  not  a  new  continent  that  Columbus  set  out  to 
discover,  but  the  old  spices  and  gold  of  the  old  Orient.  The 
finding  of  America  instead  was  his  undoing. 

The  yearning  of  the  West  has  always  been  toward  the  East. 
It  has  sought  its  wares  and  spices,  but  behind  all  that  has  lain  the 
half-formulated,  half-confessed  instinct  to  lay  hand  on  the  slum- 
bering power  that  lurks  behind  the  mystery  of  the  East  stored  in 
the  long-schooled  industrial  patience  of  the  Chinaman  and  the 
cosmic  philosophy  of  the  Hindoo.  The  emergence  of  the  Ameri- 
can continent  as  a  mighty  barrier  across  the  path  of  the  western 
route  became  a  discouragement  to  the  thought  of  using  that 
route.  The  search  for  a  passage  to  the  north  of  North  America 
persistently  failed.  The  southern  tip  of  South  America  pushed 
itself  down  more  than  twenty  degrees  of  latitude  farther  than 
the  Cape  of  Good  Hope.  Even  the  narrow  isthmus  of  Panama 


Relation  of  Pacific  Coast  to  Education  in  Orient.  43 

proved  a  barrier  rather  than  a  highway.  It  took  four  centuries 
for  men  to  dominate  fully  the  barrier  by  occupying  it  with  homes 
and  cutting  it  through  with  steel  highways.  It  will  be  yet  a 
decade  or  more  before  the  Panama  canal  is  cut  through. 

Meantime  the  outreach  toward  the  Orient  has  reverted  to  the 
eastern  routes.  First  came  the  route  round  the  Cape  of  Good 
Hope,  which  created  the  colonial  system  of  Holland  and  the  em- 
pire of  England.  Then  came  the  short  cut  by  the  Suez  Canal 
through  the  Red  Sea.  Then  came  the  project  of  a  railway  join- 
ing southeastern  Europe  by  way  of  Asia  Minor  and  Persia  to  the 
head  of  the  Persian  Gulf.  Then  came  the  development  of  Russia's 
trans-Caspian  route  by  steamers  across  the  Caspian  and  railway 
on  through  Turkestan  by  Samarkand.  Only  the  check  of  English 
power  has  prevented  northern  Persia  and  northern  Afghanistan 
from  melting  into  the  jurisdiction  of  Russia  and  admitting  the 
passage  of  a  railway  by  the  old  route,  Teheran  to  Herat  to  Kabul 
to  India.  So  the  ways  revert  to  the  old-time  track  of  the  caravans. 
And  finally  was  built  the  trans-Siberian  line  on  Russia's  own  soil 
almost  to  the  shores  of  the  Pacific.  Even  if  northern  Manchuria 
could  be  called  Russian  soil,  it  could  not  yet  be  granted  that  a 
railway  issuing  at  Vladivostok  had  reached  the  Pacific,  for  that 
port  was  closed  a  third  of  the  year  by  ice.  The  day  came,  how- 
ever, when  the  watchful  eye  of  England  was  averted  or  was  closed 
in  sleep.  Russia  displaced  England  in  its  place  as  China's  good 
friend  and  forced  it  over  into  an  alliance  with  Japan.  Li  Hung 
Chang  was  bought  with  Russian  gold.  Russia  carried  her  rail- 
way through  to  Port  Arthur,  and  at  last  had  found  the  open  sea, 
and  enrolled  her  destiny  with  the  nations  which  found  their  em- 
pire in  battleships  that  ply  the  outer  seas.  For  centuries  she  had 
struggled  to  reach  an  ocean,  but  the  nations  plotted  to  keep  her  an 
inland  power.  The  Baltic  is  almost  an  inland  sea;  its  harbors 
are  icebound  in  the  winter,  and  Scandinavians  and  Germans  con- 
trol its  exits.  The  great  powers  by  a  conspiracy  of  inaction  leave 
the  stranded  hulk  of  Turkey  to  block  the  exit  of  the  Black  Sea. 
When  Russia  has  looked  for  a  way  out  of  the  Persian  Gulf,  Eng- 
land has  always  been  ready  to  set  a  check,  and  now  the  interests 
of  Germany,  which  in  recent  years  has  been  establishing  itself 
as  guardian  of  senile  Turkey,  will  be  even  more  potent  to  prevent. 
The  commercial  and  perhaps  the  political  interests  of  Germany 
lead  her  along  the  southwestern  face  of  the  Russian  glacier.  Her 
wares  move  southeast.  In  this  direction,  too,  is  the  line  of  least 
resistance  for  the  development  of  her  political  power.  The  rail- 
way to  the  head  of  the  Persian  Gulf  will  be  hers.  It  is  therefore 
just  at  present  her  policy  to  be  the  good  friend  and  candid  ad- 
viser of  Russia,  and  gather  in  all  the  wreckage  that  issues  from 
Russian  disaster. 


44  Lewis  and  Clark  Educational  Congress. 

When  at  last  in  1898  Russia  seemed  to  have  found  its  clear 
way  to  the  open  sea,  it  appeared  that  the  history  of  the  world  had 
advanced  into  a  new  stadium.  A  new  power  had  entered  the  lists 
for  the  empire  of  the  outer  ocean.  Northern  and  central  China  were 
to  be  brought  into  relations  and  assimilated  to  the  west  through  the 
mediation  of  half-occidental,  half-oriental  Russia,  and  oriental 
Japan  of  occidental  veneer  was  to  be  robbed  of  its  task,  and 
stand  doomed  to  finally  inevitable  absorption  into  the  mass  of 
Russia.  Then  it  was  that  two  events  presented  the  opportunity 
for  a  total  shifting  of  the  horoscope.  These  two  events  were 
the  Boxer  uprising  and  the  Russo-Japanese  war. 

The  former  gave  the  opportunity  for  the  issuance  of  John 
Hay's  circular  note  stating  the  policy  of  the  "open  door."  The 
circular  note  was  a  device  forced  upon  our  state  department  by 
the  classical  incompetency  of  the  United  States  senate  under  its 
present  constitution  and  its  unwritten  rules  of  courtesy.  It  is  now 
a  body  incapable  of  largeness  of  views  or  promptitude  of  action. 
John  Hay  seized  the  opportunity  and  secured  the  assent  of  the 
powers  to  a  policy  opposed  to  partition  of  China  and  established, 
especially  since  the  reaffirmation  obtained  by  a  second  note,  this 
policy  in  a  security  as  firm  as  any  body  of  international  treaties 
could  assure.  Throughout  the  Boxer  troubles  John  Hay  deftly 
avoided  all  recognition  of  the  uprising  as  involving  a  state  of  war, 
and  thus  prevented  Russia  from  obtaining  a  hold  upon  Manchuria 
that  could  arise  from  conditions  of  war.  Herein  lay  his  most 
certain  and  distinguished  diplomatic  service.  This  was  an 
achievement  of  first  importance,  shapen  in  terms  of  the  whole 
world  history.  Russia  had  at  the  beginning  assured  our  gov- 
ernment that  it  proposed  no  permanent  occupation  of  Manchuria, 
and  was  present  there  only  as  the  owner  of  a  railway  anxious  only 
to  secure  peaceful  and  stable  conditions  for  the  operation  of  its 
property.  John  Hay  took  regular  occasion  to  remind  the  repre- 
sentative of  the  Russian  government  at  Washington  of  this  as- 
surance, and  to  impress  upon  him  the  fact  that  our  government 
Tiad  noted  the  assurance  and  accepted  it  in  literal  form. 

John  Hay  appeared  upon  the  scene  in  this  critical  juncture, 
because  our  controversy  with  Spain  had  just  at  that  time  laid 
responsibilities  upon  our  nation  and  established  its  interests  in 
Asiatic  waters.  The  juncture  was  rendered  for  us  peculiarly 
critical  by  the  fact  that  just  at  that  time  England  was  preoccupied 
in  the  Boer  war,  and  had  suffered  notable  decline  of  international 
prestige  through  the  prolongation  of  that  conflict.  Whether  by 
agreement  or  otherwise  the  United  States  stepped  into  the  ad- 
ministration of  what  had  hitherto  been  the  Englisji  policy  in  the 
Chinese  Orient.  It  was  the  policy  of  nonpartition,  of  having 
China  as  a  whole  to  work  out  its  own  adjustment  to  world- 
conditions,  to  administer  its  own  awakening. 


Relation  of  Pacific  Coast  to  Education  in  Orient.  45 

Close  upon  this  event  followed  the  Russo-Japanese  war,  the 
issue  of  which  has  certainly  been  to  thrust  back  Russia  from  its 
debouchment  upon  the  open  ocean,  and  transform  Japan  from  an 
island  power  to  a  power  encircling  the  Sea  of  Japan. 

If  this  issue  shall  be  established  as  a  permanent  fact  of  his- 
tory, the  verdict  means  that  this  latter  day  reversion  to  the  cara- 
van routes  and  the  westward  track  as  the  means  of  accomplishing 
the  assimilation  of  the  East  to  the  West  has  met  with  rebuff,  and 
again  gone  down  in  failure.  The  failure  will  have  been  due  in 
chief  measure  to  two  things ;  first,  the  appearance  of  America  as 
a  power  in  the  Pacific;  second,  the  rise  of  Japan  into  the  position 
of  a  modern  nation  able  to  assert  itself.  But  it  was  from  America 
Japan  received  its  impulse  toward  the  adoption  of  the  modern 
equipment  of  life.  The  occidentalism  which  has  affected  it  has 
come  around  the  globe  westward  by  the  ocean  route,  not 'by  the 
old  eastward  route  on  land. 

The  great  problem  with  which  the  world-history  will  have 
to  deal  in  the  next  centuries  concerns  the  assimilation  of  eastern 
Asia  to  the  other  world-half.  All  through  the  long  history  of 
mankind  India  and  China  have  gone  their  own  way.  They  have 
received  little  or  nothing  from  the  thought  and  experience  of  the 
rest  of  the  world,  and  given  little  to  it.  Their  views  of  the  uni- 
verse and  of  the  purpose  and  meaning  of  life  are  their  own,  de- 
veloped out  of  their  own  experience  and  reflection  without  con- 
ference with  the  West.  The  man  of  the  West  and  the  man  of 
the  East  can  not  therefore  understand  each  other.  There  are  no 
common  factors  in  their  thought.  In  superficial  things  they  may 
seem  to  establish  a  temporary  understanding,  but  they  are  apart 
on  the  fundamentals.  They  translate  each  other's  thoughts  by 
words  that  seem  to  be  equivalents,  but  they  are  not ;  the  concepts 
differ.  When  the  Yankee  thinks  he  has  caught  the  secret  of  the 
Chinaman,  then  is  he  of  all  men  most  miserable;  his  trouble  has 
really  just  begun,  for  to  his  ignorance  is  added  the  deceitful  as- 
surance of  knowledge.  To  understand  the  guileless  prattle  of 
one  of  these  sons  of  the  Celestial  kingdom  is  one  thing ;  it  would 
be  quite  another  to  enter  the  mysterious  caverns  of  a  Chinese 
head,  dwell  in  the  quirks  and  convolutions  of  his  brain,  and  look 
out  through  his  eyes  upon  the  world.  Even  if  you  then  thought 
you  knew  the  Chinaman,  you  surely  would  not  recognize  the  world 
as  being  anything  you  had  seen  before. 

The  human  society  to  which  all  we  occidentals  belong  is  a 
long-time  work  of  history,  and  highly  complicated  both  as  to 
materials  and  the  forms  of  their  blending  and  use.  Every  people 
and  tribe,  every  religion  and  culture,  from  Assyria  to  Ireland,  has 
contributed  its  part.  We  measure  boards  by  Assyrian  inches  and 
jokes  by  the  standards  of  Irish  humor.  All  the  elements  of  this 
vast  and  complicated  social  mass  have  become  with  time  and  in- 


46  Lewis  and  Clark  Educational  Congress. 

tercourse  and  interchange  more  or  less  assimilated  to  each  other. 
An  Armenian  and  a  Swede  are  infinitely  nearer  to  each  other 
than  either  is  to  a  Hindoo  or  a  Chinaman.  India  nnd  China  have 
not  yet  come  into  the  world's  kneading-trough.  The  time  of  their 
bringing  in  cannot,  however,  be  longer  delayed.  The  globe  has 
shrunk  to  one-half  in  twenty  years,  and  the  nooks  and  lurking 
places  are  disappearing,  and  the  barriers  of  mountain,  desert, 
ocean. 

The  assimilation  of  this  other  world-half,  so  far  as  it  con- 
cerns fundamental  things, — the  view-points  of  the  inner  religion 
and  folk-philosophy, — will  be  slow,  exceeding  slow.  The  solid 
earth  may  not  have  the  staying  power  and  patience  to  wait  there- 
for. But  in  the  superficial  things  of  materials,  their  making,  use, 
and  interchange,  the  assimilation  will  come  fast,  possibly  too  fast 
for  the  safety  of  the  world.  If  the  enormous  force  of  trained 
industrial  patience  of  China  shall  be  on  a  sudden  armed  with 
modern  steel  weapons,  i.  e.,  machinery,  engines,  dynamos,  rails,  it 
means,  of  course,  for  the  world  an  industrial  cataclysm,  an  eco- 
nomic revolution  and  upturning  from  the  depths.  The  Chinese 
patience  in  toil  is  not  a  personal  acquisition  of  individuals;  it  is 
trained  into  the  bone  of  the  race,  and  the  quality  and  quantity 
of  it  combine  to  give  China  a  latent  working  force,  an  industrial 
power  far  exceeding  that  of  all  the  nations  added  together.  The 
native  steadiness  and  conservatism  of  the  Chinese  must,  how- 
ever, give  us  fair  assurance  that  the  industrial  transformation  will 
come  gradually  enough  for  economic  conditions  at  largo  to  adapt 
themselves  thereto. 

However  this  all  may  be,  the  main  fact  which  concerns  us  in 
connection  with  the  analysis  we  have  been  attempting  is  this: 
the  assimilation  of  the  Chinese  Orient  to  the  modern  world  is  to 
be  through  the  Pacific  Ocean  by  the  westward  path  of  the  sun. 
The  Pacific  was  of  old  a  lonesome  place  where  the  day  could 
change  its  clothes  of  number  and  name  without  being  observed. 
The  old  world  looked  inward ;  China  and  India  toward  their  river 
valleys,  the  occidental  half  toward  the  Mediterranean.  The  mod- 
ern world  is  the  old  world  turned  inside  out  with  outlook  toward 
Oceanus  that  flows  around  the  continents.  When  America  was 
first  occupied  by  colonists  the  inward-looking  people  of  the  old 
world,  like  the  dwellers  in  an  old  Roman  house  built  around  a 
court  with  few  outside  windows,  regarded  the  new  continent  as 
an  outbuilding  far  back  in  the  back  yard.  The  colonists  them- 
selves thought  of  the  Atlantic  as  something  isolating  them  from 
the  Old  World,  and  they  claimed  it  as  a  wall  of  separation  to  free 
them  from  entanglement  in  the  worn-out  policies  and  systems  and 
traditions  of  Europe,  and  to  give  them  the  thing  they  called  "lib- 
erty!" But  now  that  the  world  has  been  turned  inside  out,  the 
Atlantic  turns  out  to  be  only  an  estuary  of  the  great  ocean,  and 


\ 

Relation  of  Pacific  Coast  to  Education  in  Orient.  47 

America  instead  of  being  an  outlying  continent  hidden  away  under 
the  sunset  assumes  its  place  in  the  center  of  the  world,  midway 
between  the  old  Occident  and  the  goal  of  its  incessant,  age-long 
yearning,  the  unfathomed  East. 

Slowly  at  first,  but  steadily  throughout,  and  with  cresting 
waves  of  energy  in  the  last  half  century,  the  tide  of  advancing 
occidentalism  has  occupied  the  new  continent  and  finally  covered 
with  deep  flood  its  western  coast.  The  Pacific  Coast  has  thus 
become  within  fifty  years  the  outer  selvage  of  occidentalism.  Its 
population,  too,  represents  by  its  aggressive  individualism,  its 
riskfulness,  and  its  power  of  creative  initiative,  the  most  advanced 
type  of  the  occidental  spirit.  They  are  what  the  old  Greeks  were 
in  the  days  when  Greece  was  the  inner  hem  of  the  Occident. 

A  century  ago  when  the  world  still  looked  inward  and  Amer- 
ica was  a  distant  annex  and  the  Pacific  a  desert  of  waters,  the 
eastern  shore  of  our  continent  formed  its  front  and  facade.  Now, 
with  the  world  turned  inside  out,  with  the  Pacific  established  as 
the  world's  forum,  with  the  world's  contrasted  halves  arrayed 
on  the  opposing'  shores,  the  front  of  the  continent  has  shifted  to 
the  West.  For  its  mission  of  the  future  the  United  States  looks 
westward.  A  recent  history  of  the  United  States  cast  in  terms 
of  geography  opens  with  the  statement :  "While  the  development 
of  the  United  States  in  the  first  century  was  clearly  determined 
by  their  position  on  the  Atlantic  Coast  facing  Europe,  it  is  to  be 
expected  that  their  history  will  be  henceforward  determined  by 
their  position  on  the  Pacific  facing  Asia."  (Semple.)  I  think 
this  must  be  the  opinion  of  all  who  have  considered  the  course  of 
liuman  history  in  the  large ;  I  know  it  is  the  decided  conviction  of 
the  historian  who  lives  in  the  White  House  at  Washington,  a 
conviction  which  has  been  borne  in  upon  him  with  a  special  force 
"by  the  events  of  the  last  three  months. 

This  much  by  way  of  introduction,  but  the  whole  doctrine  of 
rny  discussion  inheres  in  my  introduction.  I  might,  therefore,  do 
well  to  stop  at  this  point,  and  I  am  sure  you  would  be  quite  sat- 
isfied that  I  should,  but  there  are  yet  sundry  things  that  I  would 
fain  say,  if  only  by  way  of  annotation  to  my  introduction. 

The  essential  spirit  of  the  modern  ultra-occidentalism  is  be- 
trayed in  its  ideals  of  education,  which  it  derives  from  the  Greeks, 
the  ultra-occidentals  of  antiquity.  The  nucleoidal  idea  therein 
concerns  a  view  of  the  universe  wherein  thought  is  the  enliven- 
ing force,  and  the  free  spirit  of  thinking,  planning,  willing  man 
the  real  creative  source.  Science  is  the  order  that  human  mind 
injects  into  the  haphazard  and  waste  of  savagery  and  nature  after 
abstracting  from  them  their  thoughtless  laws  by  observation.  The 
purpose  of  education  is  the  ennobling  and  fulfillment  of  manhood 
to  its  liberation  from  circumstance,  impulse,  prejudice,  supersti- 
tion, the  rule-of-thumb,  and  all  things  that  mean  slavery  to  the 


48  Lewis  and  Clark  Educational  Congress. 

instant  vision  and  thoughtless  force.  The  aim  of  education  is  to 
develop  to  the  full  all  the  native  capacities  of  the  individual,  so 
that  he  may  live  abundantly  and  be  a  freeman,  a  freeman  in  the 
face  of  unthinking  nature  by  dominating  it,  in  the  face  of  his 
human  environment  by  judging  it  correctly  and  dealing  with  it 
justly,  in  the  face  of  his  own  self  by  controlling  it.  The  theory 
of  the  whole  Chinese  system  of  education,  whether  in  manners, 
crafts,  or  letters,  involves  the  effort  to  fit  and  constrain  the  in- 
dividual into  conformity  with  his  environment,  so  that  he  may 
perform  the  tasks  that  are  awaiting  him  and  live  the  life  his  an- 
cestors have  prepared  for  him,  with  the  maximum  of  adjustment 
and  the  minimum  of  friction.  For  discovery,  invention,  innova- 
tion, creation,  there  is  no  provision,  except  prevention.  It  ap- 
proaches what  is  viciously  called  in  this  country  "practical  edu- 
cation," the  education  that  assumes  to  give  skill  and  the  knowl- 
edge of  recipes  without  that  control  of  the  sources  and  bearings 
of  the  matter  which  enable  mind  to  do  its  creative  work  of  adapt- 
ing means  to  new  ends,  meeting  new  emergencies,  and  making  a 
man  a  freeman,  the  master  of  his  job  and  not  its  slave.  While  the 
Chinese  education  seeks  to  shape  the  individual  to  his  environ- 
ment, the  American  training  in  its  best  form  seeks  to  give  the 
individual  power  within  himself,  i.  e.,  to  make  him  powerful  in 
himself  to  shape  and  create  his  environment.  To  the  American, 
life  is  real ;  to  the  Chinaman,  it  is  a  drama  set  upon  a  stage.  The 
business  of  the  individual  is  to  take  the  part  and  play  the  role 
assigned  to  him  in  the  drama.  To  live  well  in  the  Chinese  sense 
is  to  live  in  "good  form,"  to  "keep  face."  This  is  the  antithesis 
both  in  view  of  life  and  theory  of  education  which  we  are  called 
upon  to  bridge. 

Within  the  next  decades  the  educational  institutions  of  the 
Pacific  Coast  in  first  line  of  those  of  America  will  surel}  be 
called  upon,  to  an  extent  out  of  all  proportion  to  anything  in  the 
past,  to  render  service  in  opening  Western  education  to  the  people 
of  the  Orient.  As  it  always  has  been  in  the  history  of  human 
education,  betterments  and  reforms  will  proceed  from  the  top 
downward.  The  universities  will  lay  the  foundations.  It  will  be 
the  Chinamen  trained  in  the  best  our  universities  can  give  who  will 
begin  the  reorganization  of  their  home  education  and  train  the 
teachers  for  the  common  schools.  A  recent  Chinese  graduate  of 
the  University  of  California  has  already  been  put  at  the  head  of 
the  educational  system  of  a  Chinese  province,  and  is  just  now 
busied  with  the  difficult  task  of  founding  embryonic  normal 
schools  for  the  training  of  the  first  teachers  who  are  to  infuse 
Western  learning  into  the  heads  and  lives  of  Chinese  boys. 
Within  the  three  past  years,  aside  from  the  Chinese  coming  to  the 
university  of  their  own  responsibility,  a  considerable  number  have 
been  sent  by  one  or  another  of  the  provincial  governments  to  be 


Relation  of  Pacific  Coast  to  Education  in  Orient.  49 

trained  for  the  government  service,  some  in  law,  some  in  political 
science,  some  in  education,  some  in  engineering,  some  in  com- 
merce and  some  in  finance.  There  are  no  better  students  today 
in  the  university.  If  we  can  teach  them  initiative  and  sense  of 
control  and  the  modern  sciences  whose  development  rests  upon 
these  qualities  of  mind,  yet  we  can  learn  from  them,  as  our  civili- 
zation can  learn  from  its  Eastern  antipode,  a  patient  recognition 
of  the  power  of  time  and  of  the  force  residing  in  the  inertia  of 
great  social  masses  and  the  value  of  persistent  adherence  to  the 
obligations  of  duty  and  loyal  service  to  the  inherited  order  of  the 
family  and  society.  A  man  is  of  small^  use  to  his  day  and  genera- 
tion, be  he  Chinaman  or  American,  who  absolves  himself,  as  her- 
mit, tramp,  and  bandit,  from  all  relation  or  obligation  to  the  life- 
line of  descent  and  posterity  as  established  in  the  laws  and  respon- 
sibilities of  the  fireside,  the  homestead,  and  the  home  community. 

An  entirely  different  problem  confronts  us  regarding  the 
Filipino  people  who  have  fallen  under  pur  oversight  in  the  order 
of  events.  They  came  to  our  hands  because  we  had  a  Pacific 
Coast.  Dewey  entered  Manila  Bay  because  a  Spanish  fleet  lying 
there  was  a  menace  to  the  harbors  of. our  coast.  The  rest  fol- 
lowed inevitably.  What  ,we  have  done  as  a  nation  for  these  peo- 
ple is  worthy  of  the  best  interpretation  of  our  democracy.  We 
have  done  what  no  nation  has  done  for  a  colony  of  alien  race. 
We  have  sought  to  give  them  through  education  the  power  of  self- 
determination.  They  differ  from  all  other  Oriental  peoples  in 
that  they  have  enjoyed  the  advantage  of  centuries  under  Christian 
influence.  These  centuries  have  not  been  in  vain  in  bringing  them 
nearer  toward  an  assimilation  into  Western  civilization.  While 
lacking  the  Chinese  stability,  they  are  bright  and  versatile,  and  the 
best  of  their  youth  will  respond  readily  to  the  opportunities  of 
our  higher  education  and  develop  into  leaders  of  their  people. 
What  is  needed  by  their  people  is  leaders  in  commerce,  law,  med- 
icine, engineering  and  agriculture — not  politicians.  Already  in 
considerable  numbers  Filipino  boys  are  coming  to  our  universities 
and  schools,  and  the  immediate  future  will  make  large  demands 
upon  the  institutions  of  the  coast  for  their  care. 

Our  nation  was  shapen  for  the  work  of  evangelization.  It 
has  gathered  into  it  all  the  bloods  and  faiths  of  the  occidental 
world,  and  has  moulded  them  together  into  a  people  out  of  which 
is  emerging  the  concept  man.  It  has  based  its  institutions  upon 
democracy,  the  most  daring  optimism  devised  by  man,  a  system 
of  governing  whose  chief  raison  d'etre  lies  in  its  power  to  edu- 
cate and  uplift  men  by  conferring  responsibility,  and  saying  to 
them,  "The  law  and  the  kingdom,  lo,  they  are  within  you."  The 
faith  of  our  fathers  is  our  faith  today;  our , evangelizing  zeal  is 
the  zeal  of  democracy, — the  ultimate  zeal  of  the  West, — to  make 
men  self-determining  and  self-governing.  Is  democracy  a  fail- 


50  Lewis  and  Clark  Educational  Congress. 

ure  ?  Our  answer  is  the  answer  of  John  Paul  Jones  to  the  question 
of  the  Serapis,  "Have  you  surrendered?"  "We  have  not  yet  be- 
gun to  fight." 


EDUCATION   IN   A   DEMOCRACY. 

By  F.  Louis  SOLDAN. 
The  Nature  of  Democracy. 

Man's  culture  has  been  of  long  development,  beginning  in 
ages  of  which  history  has  no  record.  Some  of  the  achievements 
of  civilization  have  been  by  design  and  through  the  work  of  in- 
dividuals. Art  and  literature  embody,  in  the  first  place,  the 
genius  of  the  artist.  Other  achievements  of  civilization  have 
grown  from  within  the  race  itself  and  have  come  into  existence 
through  the  instinctive  action  of  the  masses  who  are  not  always 
conscious  of  the  spirit  that  impels  them. 

The  great  institutions  which  hold  society  together,  family, 
state,  and  church,  embody  the  experience  and  wisdom  of  the  race. 
No  one  human  mind  has  planned  them.  They  have  been  slowly 
evolved  and  created  by  mankind.  They  make  possible  peace  on 
earth,  order,  happiness,  and  the  achievement  of  all  things  great  and 
valuable  in  human  life.  The  culmination  of  the  political  evolu- 
tion of  the  race  is  found  in  the  democracy  of  modern  times.  The 
democracies  of  ancient  Rome  or  Greece  were  early  phases  in  this 
evolution,  but  they  were  deficient  in  important  respects.  A  rul- 
ing class  had  taken  the  place  of  the  king,  and  there  were  bodies 
of  men!  in  those  republics  which  were  disfranchised.  Both 
ancient  and  modern  democracy  place  the  public  good  above  every 
other  consideration,  but  while  ancient  democracy  defined  the 
public  good  as  the  honor  and  power  of  the  state,  modern  democ- 
racy understands  by  it  the  general  welfare  of  the  masses.  Its 
belief  and  tenet  is  the  equal  rights  of  all  men.  Modern  democracy 
is  the  most  perfect  application  of  the  idea  of  Christianity  to  the 
conduct  of  the  state.  Democratic  institutions  are  ultimately 
based  on  the  brotherhood  of  man  and  of  man's  duty  to  his 
neighbor. 

Modern  democracy  is  altruism.  It  recognizes  that  the  wel- 
fare of  each  individual  is  bound  up  with,  and  dependent  on,  the 
welfare  of  all  others.  In  a  democracy,  every  man  feels  that  in 
defending  and  protecting  the  rights  of  the  lowliest  and  weakest, 
he  defends  and  protects  his  own.  Modern  democracy  is  more 
than  a  political  institution ;  it  is  a  confession  of  faith.  For  this 
reason  the  history  of  our  nation  is  not  of  local  interest  only,  but 
concerns  the  whole  world.  Our  country  has  made  the  idea  of 


Education  in  a  Democracy.  51 

democracy  once  more  respected  in  the  world,  after  the  first  French 
republic  ended  in  failure  and  disenchantment.  The  modest  yet 
bold  experiment  of  our  forefathers  to  found  a  government  on 
the  equal  rights  of  manhood,  with  its  purpose  of  securing  to  each 
life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness,  has  grown  to  be  an 
example  and  a  peaceful  challenge  to  the  peoples  of  the  world. 
It  has  re-established  the  faith  in  the  possibility  of  a  government 
by  the  people  and  for  the  people.  In  maintaining  her  democracy, 
and  developing  through  it,  resources,  power,  and  culture,  which 
could  have  resulted  in  no  such  measure  under  any  other  form  of 
government,  Columbia  holds  up  the  torch  of  enlightenment  to 
the  European  world. 

The  arrival  of  the  democracy  among  the  nations  of  the  earth 
means  a  turning  point  in  the  history  of  the  world.  Our  un- 
paralleled growth  in  population,  the  immense  development  of 
our  resources  and  wealth,  make  us  easily  the  most  powerful  nation 
on  earth,  and  all  this  influence  is  thrown  silently  in  the  scale  of 
popular  liberty  and  democracy.  The  first  Napoleon,  who  had  felt 
the  fatal  grip  of  autocratic  Russia,  said:  "A  hundred  years 
hence,  Europe  will  be  Kossack  or  republican."  The  arrival  of 
the  United  States  among  the  nations  has  made  the  cause  of 
liberty  impregnable.  With  our  active  faith  in  democracy,  we  do 
not  ignore  the  many  and  grave  imperfections  that  cling  to  our 
democratic  institutions,  especially  in  the  government  of  cities. 
Democracy  is  an  evolution,  which  means,  I  take  it,  that  there  is 
a  constant  elimination  of  worthless  and  decaying  features  and  a 
strong  current  of  inner  life  toward  the  creation  and  survival  of 
what  is  fittest  to  endure.  The  poison  that  has  found  its  way 
into  our  communal  life  will  be  ejected  and  overcome  through 
the  vigor  of  our  national  system  and  the  wisdom  and  character 
of  our  citizens. 

Among  the  social  agencies  on  which  democracy  depends 
for  its  existence  and  growth,  education  ranks  first.  The  family, 
the  church,  the  school,  and  the  newspaper,  have  a  share  in  furnish- 
ing the  educational  conditions  which  democracy  needs  for  its 
life  and  growth. 

The  Individual  in  a  Democracy. 

The  reason  usually  given  for  the  demand  that  education 
should  receive  the  greatest  care  in  a  democracy  is  that  he  wha 
governs  a  land  should  be  a  wise  man,  and  that  since  each  voter 
helps  to  govern  the  country,  he  should  be  as  well  educated  as 
the  sovereign  of  a  monarchy.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  voter  is 
not  called  upon  to  map  out  the  policies  of  government.  The 
matters  which  he  is  to  decide  are  mapped  out  for  him  by  the 
great  political  parties  which  contend.  But  while  the  customary 
argument  has  a  somewhat  exaggerated  form,  it  expresses  never- 
theless an  undeniable  truth.  The  citizen  of  a  democracy  governs 


52  Lewis  and  Clark  Educational  Congress. 

and  is  governed  at  the  same  time.  He  helps  with  his  vote  to 
determine  issues  and  to  elect  magistrates,  and  he  is  in  turn  gov- 
erned by  the  vote  of  his  fellow  citizens  and  by  the  magistrate 
of  their  choice.  The  individual  may  never  be  destined  to  be- 
come a  leader,  but  intelligence  is  as  necessary  to  those  that  follow 
leadership  in  political  matters  as  it  is  to  the  leaders  themselves. 
Every  citizen  in  a  democracy  should  acquire  through  education 
the  ability  to  understand  issues  and  to  choose  and  accept  leader- 
ship. The  soldier  needs  intelligence  as  much  as  the  captain. 
The  dangerous  leader  in  politics  is  possible  only  through  the 
ignorance  of  his  followers.  Moreover,  the  general  intelligence 
of  the  people  exerts  its  power  constantly  in  producing,  modifying 
and  directing  that  mysterious  and  potent  factor  in  the  life  of 
democracy  which  is  called  public  opinion  and  which  is  nothing 
but  the  cumulative  wisdom  and  the  ethical  force  of  the  masses. 
Public  opinion  is  the  resultant  of  many  minds  and  many  opinions, 
each  exerting  pressure  in  accordance  with  its  individual  force, 
character,  and  life  position.  Public  opinion  thus  created  moves 
the  affairs  of  the  nation,  as  the  joint  action  of  current,  wind,  oar, 
and  rudder  moves  the  boat  across  the  river  in  the  line  of  the  re- 
sultant of  these  forces. 

The  Public  School  Idea. 

With  the  self-evident  necessity  of  general  education  as  the 
basis  of  democracy,  it  is  remarkable  that  the  idea  of  the  public 
school  has  but  slowly  found  its  way  into  the  history  of  our  in- 
stitutions. A  hundred  years  ago  there  was  no  system  of  public 
education  in  the  United  States.  There  were  schools  maintained 
by  parents,  by  school  associations,  and  some  public  schools  sup- 
ported by  states  and  municipalities,  but  there  was  no  system  of 
public  education.  A  beginning  had  been  made  in  colonial  times. 
Some  of  the  colonies,  especially  those  of  New  England,  saw  the 
necessity  of  public  education  from  the  beginning.  In  other 
colonies,  however,  education  received  little  attention.  Some  of 
the  royal  governors  were  opposed  to  it.  The  extreme  views  of 
Governor  Berkeley  of  Virginia,  1641,  have  often  been  quoted. 
Berkeley  was  an  educated  man,  a  graduate  of  Oxford,  and  ought 
to  have  appreciated  the  general  value  of  education.  He  said: 
"I  thank  God  there  are  no  free  schools  nor  printing  presses,  and 
I  hope  we  shall  not  have  them  these  hundred  years ;  for  learning 
has  brought  disobedience  and  heresy  and  sects  into  the  world, 
and  printing  has  divulged  them  and  libels  against  the  best  of 
governments.  God  keep  us  from  both." 

Nor  was  the  view  that  it  was  dangerous  to  educate  the 
masses  confined  to  the  southern  colonies.  It  may  be  traced  in 
the'  definition  of  purposes  for  which  King's  College,  the  predeces- 
sor of  the  splendid  and  liberal  Columbia  College  of  JSFew  York, 
was  established ;  namely,  to  educate  young  men  of  noble  birth 


Education  in  a  Democracy.  53 

and  to  counteract  and  resist  the  spread  of  republican  ideas.  The 
Dutch  had  established  free  public  schools  in  their  American  pos- 
sessions during  the  seventeenth  century,  but  when  the  English 
wrested  the  colony  from  Holland,  these  schools  were  stamped  out 
and  nothing  was  done  to  replace  them.  The  subject  of  public 
schools  was  one  of  the  causes  of  constant  contention  between  the 
Dutch  communities  and  the  English  governors.  Even  in  the 
New  England  colonies  the  principle  that  public  schools  are  a 
necessity  for  the  state  and  hence  must  be  supported  by  every  tax- 
payer, whether  he  has  children  of  his  own  or  not,  was  but  slowly 
evolved. 

In  a  general  way  the  steps  in  the  evolution  of  the  idea  of 
public  schools  conducted  by  the  state  may  be  summarized  as 
having  passed  through  the  phases  of,  first,  encouraging  schools 
and  allowing,  not  prescribing,  contributions  from  public  funds; 
second,  the  obligatory  support  of  public  schools  from  the  public 
funds ;  third,  making  the  public  schools  the  common  schools  for 
the  people. 

The  first  attitude  of  those  colonies  in  which  educational 
sentiment  existed  at  an  early  time  was  to  encourage  and  prescribe 
education — but  there  was  no  provision,  as  a  general  rule,  that 
the  state  must  supply  such  education  free.  It  was  encouraged  or 
prescribed  by  the  state,  but  the  parents  were  supposed  to  pay 
for  it. 

An  early  law  of  the  general  court  of  Massachusetts  directed 
that  the  selectmen  of  every  town  should  prosecute  those  parents 
who  refused  "to  train  their  children  in  learning  and  labor,"  and 
a  fine  was  fixed  for  those  who  did  not  teach  them  "so  much  learn- 
ing as  may  enable  them  perfectly  to  read  the  English  tongue." 
While  education  was  thus  made  compulsory,  the  burden  of  pro- 
viding the  means  for  it  was  usually  put  on  the  parent.  The  act 
just  quoted  contains  evidence  of  the  consequences  which  result 
from  making  the  parent  bear  the  expense  of  the  maintenance 
of  schools.  The  poor,  the  shiftless,  and  the  stingy  parent  would 
rather  not  send  his  child  to  be  instructed  than  contribute  to  the 
support  of  the  school. 

The  step  from  the  encouragement  of  public  schools  to  that 
of  having  the  state  provide  for  such  schools  was  but  slowly  taken. 
The  most  famous  school  law  of  colonial  times,  the  act  passed  by 
the  Massachusetts  General  Court  in  1647,  while  taking  the  posi- 
tion that  the  child  must  receive  an  education  at  all  hazards,  im- 
poses the  duty  of  paying  for  the  schooling  on  the  parent  in  the 
first  place,  and  only  in  the  second  place  on  the  state.  The  act 
reads,  in  part,  as  follows :  "To  the  end  that  learning  may  not  be 
buried  in  the  graves  of  our  forefathers  *  it  is  ordered 

that  every  township  within  this  jurisdiction  *  of  the 

number  of  fifty  households  shall  appoint  one  within  their  town  to 


54  Lewis  and  Clark  Educational  Congress. 

teach  all  such  children  as  shall  resort  to  him  to  write  and  read, 
whose  wages  shall  be  paid  either  by  the  parents  *  *  of 

such  children,  or  by  the  inhabitants  in  general."  This  document 
is  thoroughly  consistent.  When  the  maintenance  of  public  schools 
is  defended  for  the  reason  that  learning  should  not  die  out,  there 
is  no  defense  for  burdening  the  state  with  the  cost.  Provision 
for  public  education  at  public  expense  becomes  justifiable  only 
where  its  necessity  for  the  very  existence  of  the  state  is  recog- 
nized. During  the  eighteenth  century  the  public  school  idea  made 
but  slow  progress.  It  was  only  after  our  independence  had  been 
achieved  that  public  sentiment  in  regard  to  education  broadened. 
The  act  of  1787  which  created  the  Northwestern  Territory  gave  a 
large  part  of  the  public  domain  to  education.  The  changed  atti- 
tude concerning  the  relation  between  the  state  and  education  is 
best  shown  by  comparing  the  act  just  quoted  with  the  famous 
utterance  of  the  great  statesman  of  the  age.  Daniel  Webster  said 
in  1821 :  "For  the  purpose  of  instruction  we  hold  every  man 
subject  to  taxation  in  proportion  to  his  property,  and  we  look  not 
to  the  question  whether  he  himself  have  or  have  not  children  to 
be  benefited  by  the  education  for  which  he  pays ;  we  regard  it  as  a 
wise  and  liberal  system  of  police  by  which  property  and  life  and 
the  peace  of  society  are  secured.  We  seek  to  prevent  in  some 
measure  the  extension  of  the  penal  code  by  inspiring  a  salutary 
and  conservative  principle  of  virtue  and  of  knowledge  in  an  early 
age  *  *  *  \Ye  confidently  trust  *  *  *  that  by  the  diffu- 
sion of  general  knowledge  and  good  and  virtuous  sentiments  the 
political  fabric  may  -be  secure  as  well  against  open  violence  as 
against  the  slow  but  sure  undermining  of  licentiousness." 

The  obligation  of  the  state  to  provide  free  education  has  been 
practically  settled  by  public  opinion,  but  the  question  remains  a 
matter  of  theoretical  discussion  to  this  day.  Jn  one  of  the  last  of 
his  essays,  Herbert  Spencer,  the  most  influential  philosopher  of 
England,  denied  that  the  state  had  any  right  to  compel  him  to 
pay  for  the  schooling  of  his  neighbor's  children. 

Even  at  present  the  question  about  the  rightful  extent  of 
public  education  is  sometimes  raised.  There  are  still  those  who 
think  that  the  state  should  not  provide  an  education  that  goes 
beyond  the  three  R's.  They  may  possibly  believe  in  public  ele- 
mentary schools,  and  may  not  object  to  state  universities,  but  they 
are  opposed  to  the  maintenance  of  free  high  schools.  The  answer 
which  the  practice  of  the  modern  state  gives  to  these  theorists  is, 
to  use  the  language  of  the  English  scientists,  that  it  erects  a  lad- 
der from  the  gutter  to  the  university  by  which  the  poorest  child 
may  rise  to  the  highest  educational  plane.  The  attitude  of  the 
people  of  the  United  States,  and  the  faith  that  they  entertain  that 
public  education  is  the  basis  of  democracy  and  the  condition  of  its 
stability  is  shown  by  the  enormous  sacrifices  which  our  people 


Education  in  a  Democracy.  55 

through  congress  and  legislature  have  brought  for  the  cause  of 
education.  While  the  general  government,  as  a  rule,  does  not 
support  schools  directly,  its  gifts  to  the  cause  of  education  in 
grants  of  the  public  domain  alone  amount  to  eighty-six  million 
acres,  or  an  area  equal  to  that  covered  by  the  New  England  states 
and  the  states  of  New  York,  Maryland,  and  Delaware.  It  is  equal 
to  more  than  two-thirds  of  the  entire  territory  of  the  Republic  of 
France.  The  amount  spent  in  the  United  States  for  teachers'  sal- 
aries alone  amounts  to  more  than  one  hundred  million  dollars  per 
year.  The  people  could  not  attest  their  faith  in  the  supreme  value 
of  education  in  democracy  in  a  more  emphatic  way  than  by  the 
support  they  give  to  the  schools. 

The  conviction  of  the  importance  of  public  schools  for  the  life 
of  the  state,  deep  seated  as  it  seems  to  us  at  present,  has  been  of 
gradual  growth.  While  the  newer  state  constitutions  invariably 
provide  for  education,  the  older  state  constitutions  contained  no 
such  provision. 

The  Common  School. 

The  public  school  as  established  in  the  first  half  of  the  last  cen- 
tury did  not  immediately  become  the  "common"  school  for  every 
rank  and  class  of  the  people.  There  were  sections  in  the  country 
in  which  it  was  looked  upon  as  a  school  for  everybody,  as  an  in- 
stitution to  which  the  poor  could  send  their  children  without 
pay.  Although  this  idea  is  becoming  obsolete,  it  still  lingers  in 
the  minds  of  some.  I  remember  a  conversation  with  an  educated 
and  somewhat  aristocratic  gentleman  of  commercial  prominence 
who  commended  the  improvements  effected  in  high  schools  and 
incidentally  said  that  he  sent  his  children  to  some  private  school. 
He  remarked :  "I  put  my  children  in  a  private  school  because  it 
seems  to  me  to  be  wrong  for  a  man  to  get  an  education  for  his 
children  for  nothing,  when  he  is  able  to  pay  for  it." 

The  public  school  has  not  only  the  task  of  disseminating 
intelligence,  but  also  the  further  function  of  building  up  the  na- 
tion by  spiritually  assimilating  the  people.  In  the  common  school, 
the  children  of  all  social  ranks,  of  all  religious  creeds,  meet  and 
come  in  sympathetic  touch.  Different  views  and  different  ranks 
are  taught  to  live  in  peace  with  each  other. 

A  democracy  like  ours  does  not  aim  at  leveling  differences. 
There  is  room  in  it  for  wealth  and  poverty,  and  for  every  creed 
and  every  view.  Democracy  respects  individuality  which  grows 
and  thrives  nowhere  better  than  in  the  sunshine  of  liberty.  But 
while  recognizing  fully  the  legitimate  differences  which  a  large 
nation  with  its  complex  economic  life,  its  social  and  sectional  con- 
ditions, involves,  it  does  not  consider  it  desirable  that  the  classes 
and  social  ranks  should  get  out  of  touch  and  sympathy  with  each 
other.  If  the  children  of  the  nation  are  reared  in  common  schools 


56  Lewis  and  Clark  Educational  Congress. 

attended  by  the  poor  and  the  rich,  by  all  creeds  and  all  nationali- 
ties, public  education  not  only  secures  the  permanency  of  free  in- 
stitutions, but  establishes  cohesive  bonds  of  sympathy  and  good 
will  among  all  our  people.  The  public  school  by  becoming  also  the 
common  school,  is  welding  the  whole  nation  into  intimate  spiritual 
solidarity  and  companionship.  It  prevents  democracy  from  be- 
coming a  house  divided  against  itself.  In  our  large  cities,  the 
work  of  the  common  schools  has  been  attended  by  startling  re- 
sults. In  the  city  of  New  York,  for  instance,  all  the  nationalities 
of  the  globe  are  represented,  some  of  them  forming  colonies  equal 
in  number  to  a  large  city.  The  heterogeneity  of  language,  of 
creeds,  of  social  habits,  is  marked  and  permanent.  Yet  the  chil- 
dren of  these  immigrants  that  enter  the  school  ignorant  of  its  lan- 
guage even,  leave  it  at  the  end  of  a  few  years,  devoted  to  our 
institutions  and  in  touch  with  American  life. 

Not  only  to  the  immigrant,  but  to  our  own  people,  the  com- 
mon school  is  a  boon  and  a  blessing.  The  meeting  of  all  classes 
of  our  children  in  common  work  is  in  itself  of  educational  value 
and  significance.  They  learn  to  appreciate  the  human  qualities  in 
their  fellow-beings  regardless  of  social  distinctions.  The  end  of 
school  days  brings  with  it  a  parting  of  ways,  but  a  bond  of  fellow- 
ship has  been  established  through  common  schooling  which  softens 
the  harshness  of  the  demarcation  lines  of  life.  Education  in  a 
democracy  requires  common  schools  for  the  people.  The  distinc- 
tion between  the  idea  of  the  public  school  and  that  of  the  common 
school  will  appear  perhaps  more  clearly  by  reference  to  the  pub- 
lic schools  in  German  cities.  An  excellent  system  of  instruction  is 
found  there,  and  the  schools  are  public  to  the  extent  that  they  are 
supported  and  maintained  by  the  state  and  municipality.  But  they 
are  not  common  schools. 

There  are  in  each  city  public  schools  of  various  grades  with 
courses  of  study  that  differ  in  regard  to  advancement  and  the 
kind  of  studies  taught.  There  are  schools  in  which  foreign  lan- 
guages are  part  of  the  curriculum,  and  others  in  which  the  boys 
begin  the  study  of  the  classics  when  they  have  reached  their  tenth 
year.  In  other  schools,  again,  the  course  is  simple  and  does  not  go 
beyond  what  we  include  in  the  ordinary  elementary  curriculum. 
The  various  public  schools  of  the  German  city  differ  among  them- 
selves in  kind,  and  the  parent  must  decide  what  sort  of  education 
his  child  is  to  obtain  and  select  some  school  to  fit  his  idea.  In 
each  of  the  city  schools  of  advanced  standing  a  tuition  fee  is 
charged,  and  as  a  consequence  the  selection  depends  on  the 
wealth  and  standing  of  the  family.  Those  boys  that  are  to  have 
a  college  education  at  a  later  time  are  trained  in  separate  schools. 

This  brief  explanation  will  show  that  while  these  institutions 
are  public  schools,  they  are  not  common  schools  in  the  sense  of 


Education  in  a  Democracy.  57 

our  definition.  The  classes  and  social  ranks  separate  at  an  early 
time,  and  public  instruction  becomes,  in  a  sense,  class  education. 

The  state  has  created  the  public  school ;  in  making  the  public 
school  also  the  common  school,  the  teacher  has  largely  co-operated, 
because  the  question  of  where  the  parent  sends  his  children  is 
largely  determined  by  the  convenience  of  the  buildings  and  excel- 
lence of  the  instruction.  The  way  to  make  the  public  schools  the 
common  schools  was  to  make  them  uncommonly  good,  and  in  im- 
proving the  schools  and  in  winning  for  them  the  appreciation  of 
the  people,  the  teacher  has  had  a  large  share. 

It  is  of  the  highest  importance  for  our  democratic  institu- 
tions, which  require  mutual  good  will  and  the  sympathetic  touch 
of  the  masses,  that  there  should  be  common  schools. 

School  Instruction  in  a  Democracy. 

The  question  arises  as  to  whether  the  instruction  in  the  com- 
mon schools  of  a  democracy  should  be  or  can  be  adjusted  so  as  to 
serve  specifically  the  purposes  for  which  the  schools  are  main- 
tained. At  a  first  glance,  it  might  very  properly  be  said  that  in- 
struction is  subject  to  pedagogical  considerations  only  and  cannot 
be  modified  to  serve  political  ends. 

There  is  no  democratic  road  to  arithmetic.    Geography,  pen- 
manship, and  the  study  of  science,  are  the  same,  no  matter  under 
which  form  of  government  they  are  taught.     Moreover,  the  best ' 
way  to  educate  good  citizens  is  to  train  good  men  and  women. 

Yet,  while  instruction  in  the  schools  of  a  democracy  must 
comply  with  the  general  method  which  rational  teaching  follows 
everywhere,  it  is  nevertheless  true  that  in  some  respects  it  may  be 
adjusted  to  the  great  purposes  of  the  state.  If  democracy  de- 
pends on  the  dissemination  of  intelligence,  if  it  is  desirable  that  the 
citizen,  when  new  issues  arise,  should  be  able  to  inform  himself 
through  the  printed  channels  of  information,  there  is  no  study  in 
the  school  that  is  of  greater  importance  than  reading.  If  the 
schools  did  nothing  else  than  to  impart  to  the  child  the  ability  to 
read  with  ease  they  would  thereby  render  good  service  to  the  state. 
The  ability  to  read  makes  his  mind  accessible  to  the  influence  of 
the  thinkers  and  writers  of  the  day.  The  newspaper  can  talk  to 
him  every  day.  The  library  is  open  to  him.  He  becomes  inter- 
ested in  the  issues  which  he  must  help  to  decide,  and  his  judgment 
is  enlightened. 

The  ability  to  read  is  not  identical  with  the  possession  of  in- 
telligence. There  have  been  very  intellignt  persons  who  were 
unable  to  read.  The  ability  to  read  does  not  in  itself  make  the 
thoughtful  citizen,  but  the  ability  to  grasp  and  assimilate  the  sub- 
ject-matter of  the  printed  page  ranks  among  the  best  training 
which  intelligence  can  receive.  It  is  the  task  of  the  school  to  pay 
special  attention  not  only  to  the  mechanism  of  reading,  the  cor- 


58  Lewis  and  Clark  Educational  Congress. 

rect  and  fluent  pronunciation  of  the  words,  but  to  form,  from  the 
very  beginning,  the  habit  of  thoughtful  reading.  There  is  no  bet- 
ter training  of  the  child's  intelligence  than  the  constant  practice  of 
questioning  a  class  on  the  lesson  they  have  read.  The  questions 
should  not  only  serve  the  important  purpose  of  enriching  the 
child's  vocabulary  by  making  the  language  of  the  lesson  his  own 
by  his  use  of  the  words  of  the  book,  but  for  the  still  more  import- 
ant purpose  of  leading  the  children  to  draw  inferences  and  to  ex- 
ercise their  judgment.  Instruction  in  reading,  besides  cultivating 
intelligence,  should  engender  a  love  of  reading.  Inclination  to 
read  and  enjoyment  of  reading  should  become  qualities  of  the 
child's  soul.  The  love  of  good  books  should  be  the  treasure  which 
he  carries  with  him  from  school  when  he  enters  life. 

During  the  last  two  decades  important  service  has  been  done 
to  education  by  connecting  the  work  of  the  public  library  with  the 
school  and  inculcating  habits  of  serious  and  thoughtful  reading. 
The  child  learns  how  to  obtain  books,  an  art  which  is  useful  to  the 
grown  man.  Reading  the  newspapers  is  of  importance,  but  it 
should  be  supplemented  among  intelligent  people  by  the  reading  of 
books.  Man's  education  extends  from  the  cradle  to  the  grave. 
First,  the  family  takes  hold  of  him.  Next,  the  school  supple- 
ments the  family.  When  school  ends  the  forceful  education  of  life 
begins.  The  newspaper  becomes  a  potent  daily  influence  which 
extends  beyond  the  political  guidance  and  instruction  which  it 
gives  to  the  reader.  The  newspaper,  besides  discussing  politics, 
relates  to  us  every  morning  the  events  in  the  social  life  of  the  com- 
munity and  the  country.  It  helps  to  bring  the  people  of  all  classes 
into  that  touch  with  each  other,  which  is  so  important  in  a  democ- 
racy, where  the  interests  of  one  are  the  interests  of  all.  Even 
this  semi-gossiping  part  of  the  daily  paper  has  an  altruistic  ten- 
dency which  gives  to  each  reader  a  glimpse  at  the  world  at  large 
and  an  interest  in  the  life  of  others. 

The  subject  matter  of  the  reading  lessons  in  the  public  schools 
affords  many  opportunities  to  hold  up  civic  virtues  and  noble 
human  qualities  before  the  young  minds,  to  fill  them  with  admira- 
tion for  the  great  men  of  the  nation  and  to  lead  them  early  to  an 
appreciation  of  our  institutions.  Selections  in  the  reading  books 
that  are  capable  of  teaching  civic  duties  or  of  rousing  patriotic' 
sentiments  should  be  utilized  with  special  educational  skill.  It 
used  to  be  the  practice  to  defer  instruction  in  history  until  the 
child  reached  the  highest  grades  of  the  elementary  course.  The 
fact  that  a  large  percentage  of  children  leave  the  school  before 
they  reach  those  grades,  entails  that  they  never  receive  instruc- 
tion in  the  history  of  their  country.  This  is  a  bad  practice. 
While  formal  instruction  in  history  may  not  be  possible  in  the 
primary  grades,  it  is  quite  feasible  to  teach  the  elements  of  history 
through  the  biography  of  some  of  our  national  heroes.  More- 


Education  in  a  Democracy.  59 

over,  there  are  easy  historical  stories  written  for  little  children, 
which  should  be  used  for  supplementary  reading.  No  matter  how 
early  children  are  compelled  to  leave  school,  they  should  have 
some  knowledge  of  the  history  of  their  country. 

In  the  highest  grades,  the  constitution  of  the  United  States  is 
studied.  It  used  to  be  the  practice,  and  in  some  places  it  is  the 
practice  still,  to  commit  it  verbatim,  and  in  answer  to  the  teacher's 
questions  to  recite  its  sections  from  memory.  Fortunately  this 
practice  has  been  superseded  by  a  better  method.  It  laid  stress 
on  the  words  sometimes  to  the  neglect  of  the  meaning.  There  is 
no  better  opportunity  to  give  to  the  young  minds  a  glimpse  at  the 
wonderful  structure  of  our  political  organization  than  to  grasp 
the  meaning  and  thought  'rather  than  the  words.  It  is  of  course 
easier  to  lead  children  to  repeat  the  words  of  the  constitution 
than  to  make  them  understand  the  meaning  of  its  leading  features, 
but  the  latter  is  the  worthier  method  in  the  schools  of  a  de- 
mocracy. 

Recitations. 

Aside  from  the  influence  which  special  studies  have,  the 
general  form  of  the  school  work  may  be  made  to  promote  the 
ability  to  obtain  information  by  one's  own  efforts.  The  school 
may  be  so  organized  as  to  impart  skill  in  the  use  of  sources  of 
information  and  to  cultivate  a  certain  independence  of  thought. 
In  European  countries  and  in  Eastern  cities  the  whole  room  as  a 
rule  forms  one  class  and  recites  together.  Much  can  be  said  in 
favor  of  the  other  plan,  of  having  two  classes  in  each  room.  This 
arrangement  of  the  program  prevails  in  many  cities  of  the  West. 
Where  the  whole  class  recites  together  it  is  constantly  dominated 
by  the  personality  of  the  teacher.  The  pupil  is  not  left,  to  himself 
sufficiently  long;  he  is  not  made  habitually  to  depend  on  his  own 
resources.  Where  there  are  two  classes  in  each  room,  one  class 
studies  its  lesson  while  the  other  recites.  The  pupil  has  a  chance 
to  do  something  by  himself.  He  is  left  to  his  own  initiative.  He 
is  freed  for  a  half  hour  from  the  intellectual  control  by  which  his 
mind  is  made  to  keep  step  with  others.  For  a  time  he  sets  his 
own  pace,  and  thinks  his  own  thoughts.  He  learns  how  to  ob- 
tain through  thoughtful  reading  information  of  which  he  must 
give  an  account  later  when  he  recites.  He  is  placed  in  the  same 
position  in  which  he  will  find  himself  in  later  years  when  he  tries 
to  obtain  information  from  books.  His  school  experience  trains 
him  for  life. 

The  recitation  of  the  lesson  itself  gives  important  training. 
Each  child  is  in  intellectual  touch  with  his  class  and  joins  them 
in  common  work.  He  learns  to  listen  to  the  reasoning  of  others, 
to  reason  himself,  and  to  present  his  reasons  intelligently.  I  be- 
lieve that  American  schools  give  greater  scope  to  connected  topical 


60 


Lewis  and  Clark  Educational  Congress. 


recitation  than  is  given  elsewhere,  and  that  the  readiness  of  the 
average  American  to  speak  in  the  meetings  which  he  is  called  on  to 
attend  is  a  direct  result  of  this  training. 

All  instruction  should  tend  to  develop  individuality,  but  it  is 
an  error — frequently  met,  even  among  teachers — to  suppose  that 
when  children  are  instructed  in  classes,  individuality  is  lost 
thereby.  Many  believe,  erroneously,  that  it  would  be  better  to 
instruct  children  singly  if  time  allowed,  and  that  instruction  by 
classes  is  but  a  makeshift  resorted  to  because  the  other  way  is  too 
expensive.  Just  the  opposite  is  true.  There  is  no  way  of  de- 
veloping character  and  individuality  except  by  touch  and  contact 
and  intercourse  with  our  fellow  beings.  Intellectual  or  artistic 
talent,  says  the  poet,  may  develop  in  solitude,  but  character  and 
individuality  grow  only  in  the  stress  and  struggle  of  life.  Just 
because  the  child  meets  his  equals  in  the  school  and  works  and 
competes  with  them  will  his  individual  traits  unfold  and  become 
refined  and  ennobled.  Selfishness  is  suppressed  and  altruistic 
motives  are  cultivated.  Teaching  children  in  classes  develops 
individuality.  Let  us  discard  the  pernicious  idea  that  teaching  is 
a  pouring-in  process,  and  consists  of  nothing  but  the  storing  of 
the  mind  with  information  which  the  teacher  presents  and  the 
pupil  remembers.  In  instruction  it  is  not  the  teacher's  activity, 
but  the  activity  which  he  causes  in  the  pupil  that  counts.  The 
response  alone  which  the  child  makes  to  instruction  is  of  value. 
Education  depends  on  what  the  child  does  with  the  instruction 
that  is  presented,  the  trains  of  thought  that  it  engenders  in  him, 
how  he  interprets  and  assimilates  new  information,  how  he  is  able 
to  express  it  and  what  he  will  do  with  it  in  life.  The  highest 
pedagogical  skill  is  displayed  not  in  the  more  or  less  brilliant  way 
in  which  the  teacher  presents  knowledge,  but  the  response  on  the 
part  of  the  children  which  she  is  able  to  bring  about.  The  child's 
response  to  instruction,  however,  depends  on  the  individuality 
of  the  child  himself.  There  are  not  two  in  a  class  that  study  a 
lesson  alike,  to  whom  it  means  the  same  thing,  or  who  recite  it  the 
same  way. 

Individuality  is  irrepressible.  It  will  be  promoted  strongly 
by  class  recitation  if  the  teacher  gives  enough  freedom  and  elbow- 
room  to  the  mental  activity  of  the  child  and  judges  a  recitation 
or  an  answer,  not  from  the  standpoint  that  it  must  conform  with 
the  answer  she  herself  has  in  mind.  The  teacher  must  enter  into 
the  child's  own  way  of  thinking. 

Discipline. 

The  discipline  of  the  school  if  rightly  conducted  imparts  civic 
training.  Valuable  civic  habits  may  be  inculcated  and  strength- 
ened, such  as  the  habit  of  obedience  to  law,  the  habit  of  self- 
government,  the  habit  of  self-regulated,  orderly  conduct,  of  re- 


Education  in  a  Democracy.  6J 

spect  for  the  rights  of  others  and  of  good  will.  These  are  of 
general  human  as  well  as  of  civic  importance.  When  the  little 
child  enters  the  kindergarten  he  learns  his  first  important  civic 
lesson.  At  home  his  position  was  unique,  for  the  youngest  child 
is  the  royal  person  round  whom  the  love  and  attention  of  the 
whole  family  center  and  whose  wish  is  law.  When  thrown  into 
touch  with  other  children  in  the  kindergarten  he  learns  verv  soon 
that  his  will  is  not  supreme  since  he  lives  in  a  little  community 
where  others  have  equal  rights  with  him. 

In  the  primary  grades  the  child  must  learn  to  respect  thor- 
oughly the  teacher's  authority,  because  it  is  essential  that 
habits  of  order  be  formed.  The  little  child  must  learn  to  do  what 
he  is  told  without  an  obligatory  lengthy  explanation  of  the  "why" 
and  "wherefore"  of  the  order.  Obedience  to  law  can  not  be  made 
to  depend  on  each  individual's  approval  of  it.  But  gradually, 
when  the  habit  of  obedience  has  been  acquired,  the  teacher's  au- 
thority must  be  made  to  appear  as  the  power  which  carries  out 
the  law  of  the  school  and  the  generally  recognized  rules  and 
usages  of  proper  conduct.  When  the  child  has  arrived  at  the 
age  when  he  can  understand  the  reason  for  the  habits  of  order 
which  he  has  formed,  constant  appeals  may  then  be  made  to  the 
child's  good  sense  and  the  discipline  of  authority  changes  into  the 
rule  of  law.  The  little  misdemeanors  of  learning  childhood  are 
then  treated  not  as  offenses  against  the  authority  of  the  teacher, 
but  as  encroachments  on  the  rights  of  the  other  children.  Whisper- 
ing is  improper,  not  because  the  teacher  has  prohibited  it,  but 
because  the  other  children  have  a  right  to  be  free  from  unneces- 
sary and  willful  disturbance  while  they  are  at  work. 

The  wise  teacher  will  remember  that  too  much  government 
is  as  bad  in  school  as  it  is  in  the  state.  Lack  of  discipline  and 
order  in  a  school  room  is  bad,  but  too  much  discipline  is  worse. 
An  air  of  individuality,  of  rational  freedom,  ought  to  prevail  in  a 
well-managed  room,  and  there  is  nothing  more  charming  for  an 
educator  than  to  visit  a  room  which  seems  to  run  itself,  where 
good  order  and  intentness  upon  the  work  prevail,  all  seemingly 
due  to  the  earnestness  of  the  pupils,  without  any  apparent  effort 
on  the  part  of  the  teacher.  All  glory  to  such  teacher ;  it  is  all  her 
work  any  way;  it  is  the  response  which  her  character,  her  good 
judgment,  her  incessant  labor  has  brought  about,  which  alone 
counts  in  education.  The  air  of  that  freedom  which  fills  the  land 
and  in  which  the  children  must  live  their  lives  must  permeate 
the  school  room  as  well. 


62  Lewis  and  Clark  Educational  Congress. 

SCHOOL  EXTENSION  AND  ADULT  EDUCATION. 
By  HENRY  M.  LEIPZIGER. 

There  is  one  creed  to  which  we  all  subscribe,  and  that  is  our 
belief  in  the  necessity  and  importance  of  education  for  all.  Not 
only  republican  America,  but  monarchical  Europe  recognizes  the 
power  of  public  opinion,  and  this  deference  to  public  opinion  is 
the  triumph  of  democracy.  How  important  is  it  then  that  public 
opinion  be  sound  and  sane  and  that  the  democracy  that  exer- 
cises this  power  should  wield  it  in  obedience  to  lofty  and  pure 
motives ! 

The  most  potent  agent  in  the  spread  of  education  among  the 
people  is  that  nineteenth  century  product,  the  public  school ;  and 
in  the  brief  time  that  I  shall  occupy,  I  shall  speak  specifically  of 
the  marvelous  extension  in  the  conception  of  the  school  that  has 
taken  place  during  the  last  generation,  and  in  making  references, 
shall  necessarily  be  confined  to  what  has  gone  on  in  New  York. 
Many  other  cities  have  special  advantages  or  have  made  special 
school  experiments  which  have  been  more  or  less  successful ;  but 
it  is  my  desire  to  call  the  attention  of  this  audience  to  what  has 
gone  on  in  school  extension  in  New  York  City  and  to  indicate 
the  path  along  which  all  cities  should  go  to  make  their  schools 
the  most  perfect  citizen-creators  possible. 

Fully  to  appreciate  the  problem,  it  may  be  well  to  call  your 
attention  to  the  fact  that  the  City  of  New  York  has  on  its  rolls 
to-day,  in  round  numbers,  about  600,000  pupils;  that  it  has  a 
staff  of  about  13,000  teachers;  that  the  school  population  repre- 
sents all  the  diverse  elements  that  form  our  heterogeneous  city: 
that  in  some  portions  of  this  city  the  population  is  so  dense  that 
practically  children  may  grow  up  therein  with  but  a  limited  knowl- 
edge of  nature ;  and  that  the  task  of  educating  this  vast  con- 
glomeration presents  a  social  problem  with  which  no  other  city 
of  the  world  has  ,to  contend.  And,  while  the  solution  of  this 
problem  is  far  from  being  attained,  it  is  well  to  observe  that  the 
spirit  and  the  desire  are  present  gradually  to  give  New  York  the 
best  that  can  be  given. 

The  extension  of  the  school  has  gone  along  three  main  lines. 
The  school  curriculum  has  been  broadened.  Thirty  years  ago, 
what  are  known  as  the  staples  of  education,  the  three  R's,  formed 
the  main  themes  of  instruction.  Rote  learning  was  the  custom — 
repetition  of  facts  learned  from  books  seemed  to  be  the  "be  all" 
of  education.  The  hand  and  the  eye  were  little  used  as  means 
of  educational  power.  The  late  General  Francis  A.  Walker, 
head  of  the  Massachusetts  Institute  of  Technology,  in  describing 
the  school  of  his  youth,  says :  "I  entered  the  schools  of  Massa- 
chusetts at  five  years  of  age  and  left  them  to  go  to  college  at 


School  Extension  and  Adult  Education.  6$ 

fifteen.  In  all  the  interval,  I  do  not  remember  ever  to  have  been 
set  to  any  study  or  exercise  which  I  could  not  have  done  just  as 
well  if  born  without  hands,  except  solely  for  the  convenience 
of  holding  a  book  and  turning  over  its  leaves,  or  of  writing  on 
paper,  slate  or  blackboard ;  or  which  I  could  not  have  done  just  as 
well  if  afflicted  with  total  blindness." 

How  different  in  the  school  curriculum  of  to-day,  when  the 
theory  is  being  put  into  practice  that  "the  whole  boy  must  go  to 
school,"  and  that  the  hand  and  the  eye  and  the  heart  and  the 
head  must  be  trained!  Therefore,  in  the  modern  school  cur- 
riculum, there  is  included  provision  for  the  means  of  acquiring 
knowledge  and  expressing  it;  provision  for  the  study  of  nature 
and  of  history  and  of  literature;  provision  to  give  the  child  the 
use  of  his  hands;  and  provision,  I  am  glad  to  say,  for  physical 
development.  It  seems  as  if  the  wise  ideal  of  the  present  school 
curriculum  is  to  prepare  the  children  who  attend  school  "for 
life — not  merely  for  examinations" ;  and  that  the  educational  sys- 
tem at  any  time  in  vogue  must  adapt  itself,  constantly  to  the  social 
and  industrial  conditions  of  the  time  or  of  the  place.  In  every 
city,  while  it  is  desirable  that  there  should  be  uniformity  in  studies 
so  as  to  secure  for  every  child  the  just  minimum  to  which  he  or 
she  is  entitled  in  order  to  become  an  upright  and  an  honorable 
citizen,  yet  opportunity  should  constantly  be  afforded  for  adjust- 
ment to  conditions  which  may  prevail  in  different  sections  of  the 
city,  so  that  the  needs  of  any  particular  locality  may  be  provided 
for. 

The  extension  as  indicated  in  the  curriculum  is  further  shown 
by  the  character  of  the  schools  which  now  form  a  part  of  the 
great  educational  system  of  our  metropolis.  Eight  years  ago, 
there  were  no  high  schools  in  New  York  City.  The  city  has 
maintained  a  college,  formerly  known  as  the  Free  Academy,, 
since  1853,  and  now  as  the  College  of  the  City  of  New  York,  and 
is  erecting  new  buildings  for  this  college  at  a  cost  of  about  $5,000,- 
000;  and  a  Normal  College  for  the  training  of  teachers  since 
about  1870 ;  but  there  were  no  high  schools  until  eight  years  ago. 
There  are  now  about  twenty-one,  including  branches,  and'  these 
include  two  commercial  and  four  manual  training  high  schools, 
one  of  which  is  for  girls.  It  is  certainly  gratifying  to  note  the 
recognition  of  manual  training.  Too  much  appreciation  can  not 
be  given  to  the  value  of  manual  training  as  a  moral  agent  as  well 
as  an  educational  factor;  and  if  in  a  course  of  education  the 
studies  engaged  in  by  the  pupils,  besides  their  educational  value, 
have  a  relationship  to  home  or  to  life,  then  so  much  more  valuable 
are  those  subjects.  Instruction  in  art,  which  is  becoming  more 
and  more  general,  and  instruction  in  domestic  science,  in  a  city 
so  large  a  population  of  which  lives  in  the  tenement,  constitute 
one  of  the  most  valuable  features  of  the  extension  of  school  life. 


64  Lewis  and  Clark  Educational  Congress. 

As  an  indication  of  the  appreciation  of  the  fact  that  the  high 
schools  have  met  a  common  demand,  is  the  fact  that  there  are 
about  18,000  pupils  in  these  high  schools,  and  the  majority  of  the 
scholars  in  these  schools  are  girls.  It  is  well  to  refer  here  also 
to  the  avidity  with  which  young  women  of  our  city  avail  them- 
selves of  the  opportunities  of  education.  It  is  indeed  true  that 
the  privilege  of  education  is  one  which  should  be  afforded  equally 
to'man  and  to  woman.  It  is  not  always,  however,  that  the  privi- 
lege of  education  has  been  recognized  as  a  right  for  women. 

In  the  good  old  New  England  days,  in  the  Hopkins  Grammar 
School  in  New  Haven,  there  was  a  rule  that  "all  girls  should  be 
excluded  as  improper  and  inconsistent  with  such  a  grammar 
school."  When,  in  1766,  the  town  of  Medford  did  grant  the 
privilege,  how  did  it  do  it?  It  voted  that  the  committee  have 
power  to  agree  with  the  schoolmaster  to  instruct  girls  two  hours 
a  day  after  the  boys  are  dismissed.  In  1790  this  resolution  was 
passed  in  Gloucester,  Mass. :  "That  the  school  shall  be  open 
eight  hours  daily,  and  that  two  hours  daily  shall  be  devoted  to 
the  instruction  of  females,  as  they  are  a  tender  and  interesting 
branch  of  the  community,  but  have  been  much  neglected  in  the 
public  school  in  this  town." 

The  errors  of  the  past  are  rapidly  being  atoned  for  by  the 
granting  of  the  most  liberal  opportunities  for  the  education  and 
the  training  of  women.  A  noted  American  educator  has  said: 
"Educate  all  the  men  of  the  generation  and  leave  the  women  un- 
educated, and  every  child  under  their  influence  begins  his  public 
education  with  all  the  disadvantages  of  his  father.  Educate  all 
the  females,  and  you  will  have  a  permanent  impulse  to  the  on- 
ward movement  of  the  race  which  it  can  never  lose." 

Special  colleges  for  women,  co-educational  institutions,  and 
the  opening  of  professional  schools  to  women,  all  indicate  that 
the  day  of  darkness  for  women  has  passed  away,  never  more  to 
return.  The  only  danger  would  now  seem  to  be  that  the  desire 
of  women  for  education  is  so  great  that  some  fear  that  the 
student  bodies  in  higher  institutions  may  become  over-feminized. 
In  the'  high  schools  of  this  city,  of  the  17,000  pupils,  10,000  are 
girls.  In  a  number  of  colleges  women  already  outnumber  men. 

At  the  other  end  of  school  life,  the  most  gratifying  indication 
of  school  extension  has  been  that  of  the  kindergarten.  To-day 
there  are  more  than  four  hundred  of  these  delightful,  these  demo- 
cratic, and  these  natural  introductions  to  school  life,  whose  edu- 
cational importance  is  becoming  daily  more  recognized  as  one  of 
the  most  wholesome  extensions  of  our  educational  system. 

The  extension  of  the  school's  use  in  both  these  ways,  upwards 
by  the  establishment  of  high  schools  and  downwards  by  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  kindergarten,  is  by  no  means  the  limit  of  the 
school's  extension.  That  the  school  duty  is  not  complete  when 


School  Extension  and  Adult  Education.  65 

it  provides  for  children  alone  of  the  school  age  is  now  being  recog- 
nized by  the  establishment  of  evening  schools  which  afford  oppor- 
tunity to  those  whose  education  has  been  limited  or  to  those  who 
have  come  to  our  shores  after  the  school  age,  or  to  those  who, 
being  compelled  to  work,  still  desire  to  contfnue  their  improve- 
ment. A  system  of  evening  schools  and  of  evening  high  schools, 
three  of  which  are  for  women,  indicates  this  extension. 

The  chief  item,  however,  in  public  school  extension,  to  my 
mind,  lies  in  the  appreciation,  on  the  part  of  the  public,  of  what 
a  teacher  should  be.  The  most  important  functionary  in  the 
proper  state  of  civilization  is  the  teacher.  He  or  she  it  is  that 
takes  the  child  in  his  formative  period  and  shapes  it  and  moulds 
it  for  the  future.  For  good  'or  for  ill,  the  teacher  is  the  most 
effective  social  worker.  How  do  we,  in  this  country,  in  this  rich 
age,  and  in  the  time  of  our  greatest  prosperity,  regard  the  teacher  ? 
I  take  the  following  statistics  from  the  latest  annual  report  of 
the  United  States  Commissioner  of  Education : 

"There  are  16,000,000  pupils  attending  the  public  schools  of 
this  country.  Thirty  years  ago  39  per  cent  of  the  teachers  were 
men;  at  present,  26  per  cent." 

Is  it  desirable  that  the  teaching  force  of  the  country  be  so 
largely  feminine?  Is  not  teaching  a  virile  occupation?  Is  not 
the  training  of  the  child's  mind  as  worthy  of  the  fine  intellect  as 
well  as  the  child's  body?  Perhaps  the  compensation  given  to 
teachers  may  tell  the  story.  From  the  same  report,  the  average 
monthly  compensation  for  men  teachers  in  the  United  States  is 
$49.98  per  month,  and  the  average  monthly  compensation  for 
women  is  $40.50.  It  is  true  that  in  the  City  of  New  York  and 
other  cities  a  higher  rate  of  compensation  prevails,  and  it  is  to  the 
credit  of  New  York  City  that  the  salaries  paid  to  teachers  do 
fairly  attract  trained  men  and  women,  so  that  they  can  be  af- 
forded the  opportunities  of  culture  and  travel ;  but  New  York  is 
an  honorable  exception.  We  may  boast  of  our  organized  school 
system  and  of  our  great  school  buildings,  but  in  the  last  analysis, 
the  foundation  of  the  educational  arch  is  the  teacher.  President 
Garfield  said  that  if  you  put  Mark  Hopkins  at  one  end  of  a  log 
and  a  pupil  at  the  other,  you  have  a  university.  In  the  State 
of  New  York,  which  employs  about  40,000  teachers,  less  than 
5,000  are  men,  and  the  average  annual  salary  for  teachers  in  the 
City  of  New  York  is  about  $1,000;  in  the  towns  of  New  York 
about  $350.  A  state  will  then  only  be  civilized  when  it  recognizes 
the  true  dignity  and  the  true  worth  of  the  teaching  profession. 

Within  the  last  fifteen  years  the  attention  of  the  people  has 
been  drawn  to  the  fact  that  the  school  house  was  a  plant  costing 
a  large  amount  of  money,  but  occupied  for  practically  less  than 
half  the  time.  With  the  constantly  increasing  population,  and 
with  the  inadequate  places  for  gathering,  it  seemed  as  if  so  limited 

3 


66  Lewis  and  Clark  Educational  Congress. 

a  use  of  so  costly  a  plant  was  not  justified;  and  with  the  apprecia- 
tion of  the  additional  problems  of  education,  additional  uses  to 
which  the  school  house  shall  be  put  were  devised.  Among  the 
most  notable  of  these  was  the  establishment,  about  five  years  ago, 
of  the  vacation  schools.  Prior  to  that  time  a  private  corporation, 
the  Society  for  the  Improvement  of  the  Condition  of  the  Poor, 
spent  a  small  sum  in  providing  vacation  schools.  Their  value 
became  impressed  upon  the  educational  authorities,  and  now  the 
beneficent  influence  of  these  vacation  schools  reaches  thousands. 
During  the  summer  but  a  limited  number  of  the  denizens  of  our 
city  can  afford  to  leave  it,  and  the  daily  influence  of  the  school 
being  withdrawn,  the  children,  whose  only  playground  is  the 
street,  rapidly  run  chances  of  deteribration.  The  vacation  school 
takes  these  children,  utilizes  their  energy,  directs  their  thoughts 
away  from  school  routine,  gives  them  a  love  of  nature,  takes  them 
on  excursions,  employs  their  minds  on  wholesome  reading  and 
their  hands  in  works  of  art  and  skill,  directs  their  play  and  looks 
after  their  physical  development;  so  that,  when  the. autumn  re- 
turns, and  the  school  doors  are  re-opened,  they  enter  upon  their 
school  life  refreshed  and  happy,  almost  equal  to  those  who  have 
had  the  good  fortune  to  go  to  the  seashore  or  to  the  mountains. 
The  extension  of  the  school  house  then  so  that  it  shall  be  used 
all  the  year  round,  just  as  now  some  of  our  great  universities  are 
open,  is  a  great  advance. 

Following  upon  the  extension  of  the  use  of  the  school  house 
for  vacation  schools,  is  the  development  of  the  school  house  as  a 
social  center.  But  a  limited  number  attend  the  evening  schools, 
and  after  a  day's  work  the  desire  for  social  intercourse  is  strong 
in  most  human  beings.  Shall  that  desire  be  for  what  is  low  or 
for  what  is  uplifting?  Shall  the  intercourse  be  coarse  or  shall  it 
be  refined?  What  better  place  for  the  education  of  the  social 
side  of  the  human  being  than  in  the  school  house  ?  This  thought 
has  led  to  the  use  of  many  school  houses  as  play  centers  and 
recreation  centers,  where  formal  instruction  is  but  a  minor  feature,, 
but  where  refined  games,  gymnastic  exercises,  literary  clubs, 
music  clubs,  etc.,  exist  and  are  encouraged ;  where  civics  is  practi- 
cally taught ;  and  where  the  beginning  of  delightful,  real,  genuine 
refined  intercourse  is  made  possible.  Under  careful  supervision, 
and  a  proper  spirit  animating  the  workers,  it  would  seem  that 
the  time  might  come  when  the  social  settlements  which  prove  so 
efficient  now  as  moralizing  and  uplifting  agencies,  might  come 
to  an  end,  and  that  each  school  house,  wherever  situated,  might 
become  such  a  settlement,  for  each  school  house  should  be  a  center 
for  educational,  and  recreational,  as  well  as  instructive  purposes. 

The  extension  of  the  use  of  the  school  on  the  lines  to  which 
I  have  referred  has,  in  the  City  of  New  York,  been  even  further 
broadened.  It  is  believed  that  education  is  required  not  alone  as 


School  Extension  and  Adult  Education.  67 

a  means  of  livelihood,  but  as  a  means  of  life ;  and  that  as  Bishop 
Spaulding  says,  'The  wise  and  the  good  are  they  who  grow  old 
still  learning  many  things,  entering  day  by  day  into  more  vital 
communion  with  beauty,  truth,  and  righteousness." 

•  It  is  the  belief  in  this  theory  that  has  led  the  City  of  New 
York  to  include  in  its  conception  of  the  school  a  provision  for 
adult  education.  Its  underlying  principle  is  that  education  must 
be  unending.  The  city's  prosperity  and  growth  depend  on  the 
intelligence  of  its  citizens,  and  as  we  have  come  to  realize  that 
the  child  is  of  supreme  importance,  so  have  we  also  arrived  slowly 
at  the  conclusion  that  he,,  who  from  necessity  has  remained  a  child 
in  education,  needs  continuous  instruction. 

A  librarian  once  told  me  that  a  young  reader  came  into  her 
library  and  said  he  wished  a  book  entitled,  "How  to  Get  Educated 
and  How  to  Stay  So."  He  unconsciously  spoke  a  great  truth. 
It  is  one  thing  to  get  educated;  it  is  another  to  stay  so.  The 
school  gives  the  beginning  of  education.  Provision  for  adult 
education  is  necessary  to  enable  us  "to  stay  so."  Of  the  school 
population  of  our  land,  about  3  per  cent  attend  high  schools,  and 
less  than  1J  per  cent  the  colleges,  universities,  and  professional 
schools.  The  great  body  of  our  citizens  have  but  limited  educa- 
tion ;  and  the  very  persons  best  fitted  to  profit  by  education  and 
who  need  it  most  are  in  most  cases  denied  its  beneficent  influence. 
Two  classes  are  especially  in  need  of  it ;  first,  those  between  14 
and  20  years — the  time  of  adolescence,  when  conscience  is  dis- 
turbed and  when  character  is  being  formed — at  that  time  all  the 
safeguards  of  true  culture  must  be  around  youth ;  and  then  there 
is  a  large  class  of  mature  people  who  have  a  knowledge  of 
practical  life  and  who  appreciate  the  value  of  education  most 
keenly.  It  is  from  such  a  class  that  our  students — I  call  them 
that  rightly — of  electricity,  of  physics,  of  history,  are  recruited. 
A  lecturer  on  physics  wrote  to  me  the  other  day :  "The  ques- 
tions put  to  me  by  my  hearers  were,  as  a  rule,  more  intelligent 
than  are  asked  in  many  a  college." 

Sixteen  years  ago  the  Free  Lecture  Movement  was  tentatively 
begun  in  New  York  in  six  school  houses.  The  total  attendance 
was  about  20,000.  During  the  past  year  there  were  140  places 
where  systematic  courses  of  lectures  were  given  by  450  lecturers, 
and  there  came  an  attendance  of  1,155,000.  The  growth  in- 
dicated by  the  figures  which  I  have  just  quoted  must  lead  to  the 
conclusion  that  this  democratic  movement  for  adult  education  is 
appreciated  by  a  constantly  increasing  body  of  our  citizens.  The 
large  number  who  have  attended  this  year  prove  that  the  appetite 
for  instruction  on  the  part  of  the  people  has  not  been  appeased, 
but  that,  like  all  good  things,  appetite  comes  with  eating.  As  a 
rule,  we  should  not  boast  of  mere  bigness ;  but  the  fact  that  in 
the  City  of  New  York,  including  as  it  does  all  sorts  and  condi- 


68  Lewis  and  Clark  Educational  Congress. 

tions  of  men  and  women,  so  large  a  number  of  persons,  many  of 
them  old,  wend  their  way  and  in  many  instances  climb  toilsome 
flights  of  stairs  to  the  halls  of  instruction,  is  an  admirable  sign 
of  the  times.  What  is  the  magic  power  that  draws  to  these  halls 
— some  of  them  far  from  comfortable — no  matter  in  what  kind 
of  weather,  so  many  earnest  listeners?  The  answer  is  that  the 
common  sense  of  our  people  is  truly  appreciative  of  the  best  that 
the  teacher  can  give,  and  in  these  courses  it  has  been  the  endeavor 
to  give  the  people  the  best  available  from  the  staff  of  lecturers 
at  our  command. 

It  can  be  safely  said  that  the  movement  for  adult  education, 
popularly  known  as  the  free  lectures,  is  no  longer  an  experiment. 
It  is  recognized  in  the  charter  as  an  integral  part  of  the  educa- 
tional system  of  the  City  of  New  York.  Its  righteous  claim  to  be 
considered  such  is  shown  by  the  constant  endeavors  to  sys- 
tematically organize  the  instruction.  In  the  first  years  of  the 
lecture  course,  the  lectures  were  not  organized  as  consecutively 
as  they  are  now.  We  know  now  definitely  what  our  aim  is.  A 
passenger  on  the  elevated  train  in  Boston,  somewhat  the  worse 
for  drink,  was  carried  around  the  entire  system  twice,  not  know- 
ing where  to  disembark.  Finally,  the  conductor  said  to  him : 
"At  what  station  do  you  want  to  get  off?"  The  man  roused  him- 
self sufficiently  to  say,  "What  stations  have  you  got?"  Some 
years  ago  we  were  in  doubt  as  to  what  our  stations  were.  Now 
we  have  found  our  definite  station — the  definite  purpose  is  to  ar- 
"range  these  courses  of  lectures  systematically  to  stimulate  study, 
to  co-operate  with  the  public  library,  to  encourage  discussion ;  or, 
in  other  words,  to  bring  the  best  teachers  to  bear  upon  this  problem 
of  the  diffusion  of  culture  among  all  the  citizens  of  a  great  city. 
Has  this  been  done  during  the  past  year?  One  hundred  and 
seventy  courses  of  lectures,  averaging  six  in  each  course,  have 
been  given,  and  the  majority  of  these  courses  by  professors  and 
teachers  in  our  universities.  One  course  of  thirty  lectures  on 
Nineteenth  Century  English  Literature  was  given  in  a  series  last- 
ing through  the  whole  winter  at  one  center,  and  the  audience  at 
each  lecture  averaged  over  300.  An  examination  was  held  and 
certificates  were  awarded  to  those  who  had  attended  at  least 
twenty-seven  of  these  lectures  and  who  had  successfully  passed 
two  written  examinations  which  were  held.  Thirty-one  received 
certificates,  approved  by  Columbia  University.  Thus  we  have 
university  extension  realized  on  a  large  scale. 

Thirty  courses  of  lectures,  consisting  of  five  each,  on  "First 
Aid  to  the  Injured,"  were  given,  examinations  held  and  certifi- 
cates awarded.  To  co-operate  with  the  Department  of  Health, 
lectures  on  "The  Prevention  of  Tuberculosis"  were  given  in 
thirty-four  places  by  reputable  physicians,  so  that  the  themes 


School  Extension  and  Adult  Education.  69 

which  have  instructed  our  audiences  have  been  first  the  facts  con- 
cerning the  body  and  its  care.  „ 

Then  the  great  phenomena  of  natural  science  have  been  ex- 
plained— how  steam  was  harnessed,  how  electricity  is  put  to 
man's  service,  how  the  stars  move  in  their  courses.  The  whole 
world  has  been  traveled  over.  Starting  from  our  own  city,  the 
natural  beauties  of  our  own  land  have  been  described.  Every 
country  on  the  globe,  from  Greenland's  icy  mountains  to  India's 
coral  strand,  has  been  described  by  travelers  who  have  visited 
these  lands  and  have  braved  dangers  for  our  instruction.  The 
development  of  citizenship  has  been  fostered  by  scholarly  treat- 
ment of  the  great  epochs  in  our  national  history  and  the  study 
of  the  makers  of  our  national  life;  and,  to  give  a  wider  outlook, 
epochs  in  general  history  have  been  boldly  outlined,  for  the  his- 
tory of  the  world  is  one  great  drama,  and  all  its  acts  form  part 
of  one  stupendous  whole.  Music,  painting  and  other  forms  of 
art  have  been  presented  to  the  people,  and  courses  on  the  educa- 
tion and  training  of  children,  as  well  as  municipal  progress,  have 
been  listened  to  by  eager  auditors ;  for  the  purpose,  as  stated  be- 
fore, is  to  aid  the  joy  and  value  of  human  life  by  diffusing  among 
the  mass  of  our  citizens  what  some  one  has  well  called  "race 
knowledge." 

The  level  of  our  citizenship  depends  upon  the  quantity  of 
race  knowledge  which  is  made  a  concrete  part  of  our  social  en- 
vironment. 

It  has  been  my  privilege  to  receive  year  by  year  appreciative 
letters  from  both  lecturers  and  auditors — the  lecturer  emphasizing 
the  value  of  the  experience  in  its  growth  and  power ;  the  auditors 
telling  of  the  inspiration  and  stimulus  derived  from  the  lectures. 

A  college  graduate  writes : 

"I  believe  there  are  many  who  think  the  lectures  are  only  for 
those  who  have  not  had  an  opportunity  to  receive  a  high  school 
or  college  education.  The  more  intelligent  the  hearer,  the  greater 
the  benefit  derived.  As  to  the  benefits  received  from  these  courses, 
they  are  too  numerous  to  mention,  but  I  can  gladly  say  that 
through  my  knowledge  of  'First  Aid  to  the  Injured,'  I  have  been 
of  use  to  different  persons  from  taking  a  cinder  out  of  the  eye 
of  an  elevated  car  conductor  to  fixing  up  the  sprain  of  a  friend." 

Another  writes : 

"The  majority  of  us  know  nothing  but  paved  streets  and 
brick  walls.  Nature  stands  at  our  doors,  but  we  know  nothing 
of  her.  These  lectures  give  us  instruction  and  mental  exhilara- 
tion." 

And  yet  another  auditor  writes : 

"I  shall  try  my  best  to  pass  the  examination  (referring  to  a 
course  on  'First  Aid  to  the  Injured'),  although  I  am  very  absent 
minded  and  nervous,  having  been  a  victim  of  typhoid  fever  a  year 


70  Lewis  and  Clark  Educational  Congress. 

ago  and  a  remittant  fever  last  fall.  If  I  fail,  I  shall  have,  at 
least,  tried  my  best  and  learned  something  to  my  advantage.  I 
can  not  say  anything  in  favor  of  the  Monday  lectures,  as  my 
husband  only  attends  them,  because  I  have  three  small  children 
who  can  not  be  left  alone.  I  am  glad  my  beloved  spouse  stays 
with  them  Thursday  evenings  to  grant  me  the  benefit  of  the 
lectures." 

The  fact  has  been  established  that  the  people  will  go  to 
school ;  so  that  there  are  now  two  kinds  of  lectures — one  for 
larger  audiences,  where  subjects  which  appeal  to  large  bodies 
can  be  treated ;  and  the  other  more  special  in  its  nature,  where 
those  who  come  are  only  interested  in  a  particular  subject.  The 
entire  winter  at  some  centers  is  devoted  to  but  one  or  two  sub- 
jects, and  a  definite  course  of  reading  and  study  follow.  The 
division  satisfies  those  who  are  already  prepared  for  higher  study 
and  those  who  are  just  entering  upon  an  appreciation  of  intel- 
lectual pleasure,  for,  believing  as  I  do  in  the  educational  purpose 
and  value  of  these  courses,  I  also  believe  to  an  extent  in  their 
wisdom  from  the  recreative  side.  The  character  of  our  pleasure 
is  an  index  of  our  culture  and  our  civilization.  A  nation  whose 
favorite  pastime  is  the  bull-fight  is  hardly  on  a  plane  with  one  that 
finds  pleasure  in  the  lecture  lyceum;  so,  if  we  can  make  our 
pleasures  consist  in  the  delights  of  art,  in  the  beauties  of  literature, 
in  the  pursuit  of  science,  or  in  the  cultivation  of  music,  are  we 
not  doing  a  real  public  service?  Is  not  refinement,  too,  one  of 
the  ends  for  which  we  are  aiming — not  alone  knowledge,  but 
culture ;  not  alone  light,  but  sweetness  ?  And  if  we  can  turn 
our  youth  from  the  street  corners  to  the  school  playground, 
transformed  into  a  temple  of  learning,  are  we  not  helping  to  at- 
tain a  desirable  end? 

To  some  these  lectures  have  proven  the  only  bright  spot  in  a 
cheerless  existence ;  others  have  been  greatly  refined  through  their 
influence.  After  the  lecture,  many  have  crowded  around  the 
lecturer  for  further  information,  and  upon  reaching  their  homes, 
their  conversation  has  not  been  the  tittle-tattle  of  every-day  life, 
but  about  Shakespeare,  Lincoln,  the  Arctic  explorations,  or  the 
wonders  of  electricity.  Many  a  mind  has  been  stirred  from  its 
lethargy ;  and  the  lecturers  have  appealed  to  all  classes  of  our 
citizens — the  dweller  in  the  tenement  house  or  in  the  single  house 
— for  their  message  is  to  rich  and  to  poor,  man  and  woman, 
young  and  old,  educated  and  uneducated.  They  show  parents 
what  a  valuable  thing  education  is  and  the  parents  become  at- 
tached to  the  school.  They  are  social  solvents,  for  the  school  is 
a  safeguard  of  democracy;  and  at  these  lectures  the  laborer  and 
employer,  the  professional  man  and  the  mechanic  attend.  More 
lias  been  done,  for  these  lectures  have  been,  to  many,  voices  in 
the  wilderness  giving  aid  and  comfort  to  many  an  aspiring  soul 


School  Extension  and  Adult  Education.  71 

and  revealing  to  "it  its  own  strength,  for  many  a  poorly  dressed 
man  may  have  in  him  the  germ  of  gifts  which  it  would  be  well 
to  add  to  the  treasury  of  noble  deeds.  In  that  great  storm  of 
terror  that  prevailed  in  Europe  in  1793,  a  certain  man,  who- 
hourly  expected  to  be  led  to  death,  uttered  this  memorable  sen- 
tence: "At  this  dire  moment,"  he  said,  "mortality,  enlighten- 
ment, love  of  country,  all  of  them  only  make  death  more  certain — 
yes,  on  the  fatal  tumbril  itself,  with  nothing  but  my  voice,  I  would 
still  cry,  'Take  care,'  to  a  child  that  would  come  too  near  the 
wheel.  Perhaps  I  may  save  his  life.  Perhaps  he  may  one  day 
save  his  country." 

Summarizing  again  the  aims  of  this  movement,  I  would  say 
that  it  is  to  afford  to  as  many  as  possible  the  fruits  of  a  liberal 
education,  to  make  education  a  life  purpose,  to  apply  the  best 
methods  of  study  to  the  problems  of  daily  life,  so  as  to  create  in 
our  citizens  a  sound  public  opinion.  When  it  is  remembered 
that  a  million  and  a  half  men,  according  to  the  last  census,  of 
voting  age  were  unable  to  read  or  write — that  is,  11  per  cent  of 
the  total  number — it  will  be  seen  how  important  the  continuance 
of  education  is  in  a  country  whose  government  is  determined  by 
popular  suffrage.  And  the  greater  portion  of  this  illiteracy,  let 
it  be  borne  in  mind,  is  in  persons  not  of  foreign  parentage.  The 
percentage  of  illiteracy  among  the  foreign  born  is  large,  but 
among  the  native  born  of  foreign  parents,  it  is  smaller  than 
among  those  of  native  parents.  And  this  leads  me  to  refer  to 
the  addition  to  our  course  in  the  shape  of  lectures  in  foreign  lan- 
guages to  recently  arrived  immigrants.  Nothing  is  more  illus- 
trative of  the  hospitality  of  our  city  than  is  this  provision  for  the 
acquaintanceship  of  future  citizens,  at  the  earliest  possible  mo- 
ment, with  the  history  of  our  institutions  and  the  laws  of  civic 
well-being. 

The  lectures  are  illustrated  largely  by  the  stereopticon,  and 
this  teaching  of  the  eye  has  proven  a  most  effective  means  of 
popularizing  knowledge  and  retaining  interest.  Mere  speech  is 
no  longer  sufficient.  The  actual  thing  talked  about  must  be 
shown  on  the  screen.  In  scientific  lectures,  abundant  experi- 
ments accompany  the  lecture,  and  the  interest  in  scientific  sub- 
jects can  be  illustrated  by  the  fact  that  a  course  of  eight  lectures 
on  "Heat  as  a  Mode  of  Motion"  in  the  great  hall  of  Cooper  In- 
stitute attracted  an  average  audience  of  1,000  at  each  lecture. 
The  lecture  was  followed  by  a  quiz  class,  which  lasted  about  an 
hour,  and  serious  reading  of  such  a  book  as  Tyndall's  "Heat  is 
a  Mode  of  Motion"  was  done  by  many  of  the  auditors. 

Special  attention  is  paid  in  instruction  in  American  history 
and  civics.  On  the  birthdays  of  great  Americans,  in  several  por- 
tions of  the  city,  the  lives  of  these  eminent  characters  form  the 
subject  of  the  lecture ;  and  during  the  past  two  years,  in  order  to 


72  Lewis  and  Clark  Educational  Congress. 

help  in  the  assimilation  of  the  newly  arrived  foreigner,  lectures 
have  been  given  in  Italian  and  Yiddish  on  subjects  that  relate 
to  sanitation  and  to  the  preparation  for  American  citizenship. 

The  lecturers  are  recruited  from  the  very  best  educators 
available.  Our  lecturers  include  the  professors  in  our  univer- 
sities, the  traveler,  the  journalist,  the  physician,  the  clergyman — 
in  fact  all  who  have  knowledge  to  impart  and  the  power  to  do  so ; 
and  the  fine  spirit  that  characterizes  our  teaching  force  is  worthy 
of  emulation  by  all  who  are  engaged  in  the  noble  work  of  educa- 
tion. It  seems  to  me  that  no  more  honorable,  and  perhaps  more 
difficult  task,  can  be  placed  in  the  hands  of  a  teacher  who  stands 
before  audiences,  such  as  gather  in  our  school  houses,  for  I  know 
of  no  more  sacred  task  than  that  of  a  teacher  in  a  democracy, 
organizing  as  he  does  public  opinion,  directing  reading,  and  in- 
spiring for  the  higher  life.  The  ideal  teacher  in  a  scheme  of 
adult  education,  as  some  one  says,  must  combine  with  the  uni- 
versity professor's  knowledge,  the  novelist's  versatility,  the  actor's 
elocution,  the  poet's  imagination,  and  the  preacher's  fervor. 

Adult  education  as  practiced  in  New  York  combines  the  best 
elements  of  university  extension  and  reaches  the  working  people 
of  the  city.  It  has  been  the  means  of  realizing  the  belief  that 
scholarship  must  go  hand  in  hand  with  service,  and  that  the  duty 
of  the  university  to  the  city  and  the  state  is  to  lift  our  citizens 
to  higher  ideals. 

The  influence  of  the  lectures  on  general  reading  is  illustrated 
by  the  report  from  one  public  library,  concerning  which  the 
librarian  writes : 

"The  register  shows  an  increase  of  321  members  during  the 
course  of  the  winter  lecture  season,  of  which  a  large  portion  con- 
sisted of  those  who  had  first  heard  of  the  library  in  the  lecture 
hall.  As  a  result,  the  people  select  their  books  with  more  care 
and  forethought,  having  something  definite  to  ask  for  and  on  a 
subject  in  which  their  interest  was  aroused.  A  stimulus  was 
created  which  led  to  more  intelligent  reading.  You  can  not  ex- 
pect all  the  people  to  appreciate  and  thoroughly  enjoy  a  book  until 
they  know  something  akin  to  that  subject  and  until  their  enthu- 
siasm has  been  aroused." 

This  is  what  I  feel  the  lectures  are  doing  for  those  who  have 
not  had  a  school  course.  The  platform  library  forms  an  integral 
part  of  the  lecture  movement.  As  the  libraries  do  not  possess 
sufficient  duplicate  copies  of  any  particular  book,  there  are  loaned 
out  to  those  who  attend  the  courses,  the  leading  books  that  are 
mentioned  on  the  syllabus  which  is  distributed  with  each  course 
of  lectures;  and  the  circulation  of  these  books  bespeaks  the  in- 
telligent pursuit  of  the  subject  in  hand. 

The  movement  of  adult  education  not  alone  gives  a  new  inter- 
pretation to  education  and  the  teacher,  but  a  new  type  of  school 


School  Extension  and  Adult  Education.  73 

house  which  is  to  be  open  not  only  for  a  few  hours  daily,  but  at 
all  times,  and  to  be  a  place  not  alone  for  the  instruction  of  children, 
but  for  the  education  of  men  and  women;  so  that  there  should 
be  in  each  modern  school  house  a  proper  auditorium,  with  seats 
for  adults  and  equipped  with  apparatus  for  scientific  lectures,  and 
for  proper  means  of  illustration. 

There  should  be  no  necessity  for  citizens,  desiring  to  add  to 
their  culture,  sitting  in  the  low  and  ill-ventilated  and  unattractive 
school  yard  or  climbing  sixty  or  seventy  steps  to  sit  upon  a 
bench  intended  only  for  children.  So  a  change  in  the  construc- 
tion of  our  school  houses  may  result  from  the  expansion  of  this 
use.  The  newer  school  houses  built  in  our  city  contain  such 
auditoriums ;  and  the  extension  of  the  school  for  these  varied  pur- 
poses makes  the  school  house  what  it  really  should  be — a  social 
center — the  real,  democratic  neighborhood  house.  That  we  are 
approaching  such  an  ideal  may  be  inferred  from  the  fact  that 
some  of  the  school  houses  in  the  crowded  districts  are  open  on 
Sunday.  If  the  museum  and  the  library  are  open  on  Sunday, 
why  should  not  the  school  house,  too,  be  open  on  Sunday  and  in 
its  main  hall  the  people  be  gathered  to  listen  to  an  uplifting  ad- 
dress of  a  biographical,  historical,  or  .ethical  nature? 

It  seems  to  me  that  the  tendency  should  be  to  include  in 
public  education  all  that  is  best  in  the  movements  of  philanthropy 
which  mark  our  time.  The  interest  of  churches  and  philanthropic 
societies  in  our  work  is  shown  by  the  constant  offering  of  church 
and  other  halls  gratuitously  for  Board  of  Education  Public  Lec- 
tures. The  church  surely  approves  of  spreading  the  gospel,  "Let 
there  be  light." 

The  unification  of  a  great  city  is  furthered  by  a  system  of 
public  lectures.  It  is  not  brought  about  by  the  mere  building  of 
bridges.  In  a  great  city,  neighborliness  does  not  often  prevail, 
but  a  community  of  ideas  brings  people  together;  and  when  last 
year  it  was  resolved  to  celebrate  the  250th  anniversary  of  the 
founding  of  New  York  as  a  municipality,  it  was  celebrated  not 
by  a  military  parade  or  a  monster  banquet,  but  by  a  series  of 
illustrated  lectures  and  open  air  exhibitions  of  the  great  develop- 
ment of  New  York  City.  About  100  such  lectures  were  given, 
illustrating  the  history  of  the  City  of  New  York — thirty  of  them 
in  public  parks.  As  New  York  is  the  pioneer  in  this  work  of 
adult  education,  so  is  she  the  pioneer  in  this  peaceful  method  of 
civic  celebration. 

The  provision  for  adult  education  emphasizes  the  fact  which 
now,  more  than  ever,  should  be  emphasized  in  our  American  life — 
that  men  are  not  old  at  40.  Dr.  Osier,  deserving  of  so  much 
credit,  has  certainly  done  a  great  public  service  in  awakening 
discussion  on  the  question  of  the  period  of  man's  mental  decay. 
What  is  needed  in  America,  it  seems  to  me,  is  more,  not  less, 


74  Lewis  and  Clark  Educational  Congress. 

reverence  for  age;  more,  not  less,  recognition  of  the  fact  that 
though  there  may  be  a  climax  to  man's  bodily  development  in 
•early  manhood,  his  mental  development  should  be  continuous, 
and  as  President  Eliot  says,  "His  last  years  should  be  his  best." 
Scientists  tell  us  that  the  brain  of  a  man  between  50  and  60  is 
at  its  best,  and  even  at  60  the  acquisition  of  knowledge  may  well 
be  begun. 

The  history  of  the  world  of  the  past  and  the  present  day  is 
full  of  illustrations  of  the  activities  of  old  men,  and  no  one  has 
put  it  better  than  Longfellow  in  these  words : 

"But  why,  you  ask  me,  should  this  tale  be  told, 
To  men  grown  old,  or  who  are  growing  old? 
It  is  too  late!     Ah,  nothing  is  too  late 
Till  the  tired  heart  shall  cease  to  palpitate. 
Cato  learned  Greek  at  eighty;  Sophocles 
Wrote  his  grand        dipus,  and  Simonides 
Bore  off  the  prize  of  verse  from  his  compeers, 
When  each  had  numbered  more  than  f<rar-«srore  years; 
And  Theaphrastus,  at  four-score  and  ten, 
Had  begun  his    'Characters  of  Men.' 
Chaucer,  at  Woodstock,  with  the  nightingales, 
At  sixty  wrote  the  'Canterbury  Tales'; 
Goethe,  at  Weimar?  toiling  to  the  last, 
Completed  'Faust'  when  eighty  years  were  past. 
These  are  indeed  exceptions,  but  they  show 
How  far  the  gulf  stream  of  our  youth  may  flow 
Into  the  arctic  regions  of  our  lives, 
Where  little  else  than  life  survives." 

Summing  up  the  value  of  this  movement,  it  may  be  said  that 
it  brings  culture  in  touch  with  the  uncultured;  it  gives  a  new 
meaning  to  the  uses  and  possibilities  of  the  school  house ;  and  not 
alone  adds  to  the  stock  of  information  of  the  people,  but  furnishes 
them  with  ideas.  In  these  days  of  shorter  hours  and  larger  op- 
portunities, the  toilers  will  find  in  adult  education  the  stimulus 
for  the  gratification  of  their  intellectual  desires  and  a  larger  world 
is  given  them  in  which  to  live.  The  best  characters  in  literature 
will  influence  them,  their  daily  labor  will  be  dignified,  new  joy 
will  come  into  their  lives  from  this  association  with  science,  litera- 
ture, and  art ;  and  they  will  find  that  true  happiness  does  not  come 
from  wealth,  but  from  sympathy  with  the  best  things  in  art,  and 
with  the  love  of  nature. 

The  public  school  is  becoming  recognized  throughout  our 
country  as  the  most  efficient  form  of  training  for  intelligent 
democracy.  Despite  the  criticisms  of  the  public  school,  the  con- 
stant trend  of  the  morale  of  the  American  people  is  upwards  due 
to  its  influence,  and  if  the  public  school  has  failed  to  become  the 
absolute  panacea  that  the  idealists  would  desire,  is  it  not  largely 
because  of  the  failure  to  provide  for  education  sufficient  funds 
to  bring  about  the  desired  results?  The  public  school  should 
occupy  the  most  beautiful  building  in  the  town,  and  the  teachers 


School  Extension  and  Adult  Education.  75 

in  the  public  school  should  be  men  and  women  of  the  finest  in- 
telligence, the  highest  culture,  and  occupy  the  highest  social  posi- 
tion. When  such  conditions  prevail,  when  popular  appreciation 
indicates  that  the  highest  service  that  one  can  perform  is  in  the 
service  of  teaching,  then  indeed  will  the  public  school  become 
what  the  vision  of  the  dreamer  would  have  it  realize.  The  public 
school  building  of  the  present  day,  architecturally  beautiful,  with 
improved  sanitation,  with  provision  for  physical  development,  and 
with  its  auditorium  for  lectures,  is  in  a  fair  way  toward  bringing 
near  that  ideal,  so  well  described  in  the  words  of  Mr.  Page :  We 
must  make  the  public  school  everybody's  house  before  we  can 
establish  the  right  notion  of  education.  It  unites  the  people 
and  they  look  upon  it  as  the  training  place  in  which  everybody  is 
interested,  just  as  they  look  upon  the  court  house  as  the  place 
where  every  man  is  on  the  same  footing." 

We,  who  engage  in  this  work  of  education,  are  imperialists, 
but  our  empire  is  the  empire  of  the  mind ;  for  we  believe  it  is  the 
mind  that  makes  the  body  rich.  WTe  are  expansionists;  but  we 
desire  the  expansion  of  opportunity  for  all  men  to  live  the  true 
life.  We  believe  in  the  open  door ;  but  it  is  the  open  door  to  the 
school  house  to  which  we  refer.  We  should  make  it  not  alone  a 
nursery  for  children,  but  a  place  of  intelligent  resort  for  men  and 
women;  and  we  are  democrats  in  believing  with  our  honored 
president,  that  though  education  never  saved  a  nation,  no  nation 
can  be  saved  without  it. 


MANUAL  TRAINING. 
Abstract  of  the  address  given  by  HENRY  M.  LEIPZIGER. 

Dr.  Leipziger  said  that  expositions  had  materially  helped 
educational  progress  as  well  as  industrial  advance.  The  first  in- 
ternational exhibition  in  London  in  1851  was  in  a  large  measure 
responsible  for  the  provision  for  art  and  technical  instruction 
which  marks  Great  Britain's  educational  system.  The  manual 
training  movement  in  the  United  States  really  dates  from  the  Cen- 
tennial Exhibition  of  1876.  Through  the  attention  there  directed 
to  the  system  of  tool  instruction  exhibited  by  the  Imperial  School 
of  Moscow,  Russia,  St.  Louis  and  Boston  established  the  first 
manual  training  schools  in  the  United  States.  The  expositions  did 
not  originate  the  manual  training  idea ;  they  called  attention  to  the 
need  that  was  beginning  to  be  felt  in  the  educational  world. 

During  the  last  thirty  years  both  the  curriculum  and  methods 
of  teaching  have  been  criticised  and  the  greatest  problem  of  the 
time,  What  shall  be  taught  to  our  children  ?  is  beginning  to  be  rec- 


76  Lewis  and  Clark  Educational  Congress. 

• 

ognized  as  a  subject  worthy  of  statesmen.  The  belief  is  spread- 
ing that  what  we  wish  to  put  into  a  nation's  life  must  be  put  into 
its  schools,  and  further,  as  Professor  Woodward  so  tersely  ex- 
presses it,  "the  whole  boy  'should  go  to  school." 

There  are  intellectual,  economic,  physical  and  moral  grounds 
for  the  value  of  what  is  called  manual  training.  The  school 
instruction  of  the  past  laid  undue  stress  on  language  expression. 
Children  do  not  go  to  school  merely  to  learn  facts,  but  to  be 
trained  how  to  learn,  how  to  think,  how  to  help  themselves.  The 
basis  of  elementary  manual  instruction  is  laid  in  the  kindergarten, 
therefore  the  kindergarten  teaching  self-activity  is  so  valuable  a 
feature  of  elementary  instruction.  Things  and  nature,  as  well  as 
books  and  words,  should  form  part  of  our  educational  curriculum. 

The  school  curriculum  should  be  related  to  life,  and  not 
merely  to  examinations.  Living  as  we  do  in  an  industrial  age, 
and  the  majority  of  the  workers  of  the  land  being  engaged  in  dis- 
tributive and  productive  branches,  that  is,  manufacturing,  agri- 
culture and  commerce,  the  pupils  in  our  schools  should  in  some 
way  be  prepared  for  these  important  activities.  The  eye  and  the 
hand  are  such  important  aids  in  intellectual  development  that 
the  training  of  these  important  members  should  form  part  of 
every  natural  system  of  education.  Shall  the  schoolmaster  exer- 
cise in  writing  only,  the  member-  on  which  the  Creator  has  lavished 
so  much  skill?  Drawing  and  tool  instruction  should  be  included 
in  every  school  curriculum.  Besides  the  disciplinary  value  of 
manual  training,  it  will  impress  many  of  the  pupils  in  the  schools 
that  it  is  as  dignified  to  engage  in  the  fields  of  industry  as  it  is 
to  enter  the  professions.  The  boy  who  can  use  tools  has  a  power 
which  will  enable  him  to  get  along  in  life  better  than  he  who  is 
ignorant  of  their  use.  The  fact  that  the  schools  teach  something 
utilitarian  will  do  much  toward  encouraging  parents  to  keep  their 
children  in  school  as  long  as  possible.  The  appreciation  of  the 
value  of  practical  instruction  may  be  illustrated  in  the  New  York 
public  schools.  There  are  several  high  schools,  but  the  most  pop- 
ular are  the  manual  training  high  schools  for  boys  and  the  tech- 
nical high  school  for  girls.  These  schools  do  not  turn  out  arti- 
sans, but  they  combine  instruction  in  what  are  known  as  the  lib- 
eral arts,  with  knowledge  of  the  processes  of  commerce  and  the 
application  of  science  and  art  to  industry.  The  advocates  of 
manual  instruction  believe  thoroughly  in  the  value  of  literary  in- 
struction, but  advocate  that  in  a  complete  and  harmonious  educa- 
tion, art  and  industry  must,  too,  be  recognized.  Domestic  science 
should  form  part  of  the  curriculum  in  girls'  schools.  The  study 
of  fire,  food,  clothes  and  health  is  particularly  the  province  of 
woman. 

Manual  training  will  prove  a  valuable  agent  in  the  upbuilding 
of  moral  character,  and  how  to  give  moral  training  in  our  public 


Manual  Training.  77 

schools  is  the  subject  which  is  now  foremost  in  the  minds  of  the 
leading  educators  of  our  land.  Statistics,  it  is  said,  show  that  a 
large  part  of  the  criminal  classes  are  young  men  who  have  had 
no  industrial  training.  "Satan  finds  some  mischief  still  for  idle 
hands  to  do." 

Mr.  Froude  says,  "The  three  R's  of  no  industrial  training 
has  gone ;  along  with  them  are  apt  to  produce  a  fourth  R  of  ras- 
cality." Our  country  particularly  should  have  the  most  liberal  • 
curriculum  and  all  varieties  of  schools.  Rich  as  our  country  is 
in  its  natural  resources,  now  that  it  has  definitely  entered  into 
the  international  arena,  it  enters  into  the  field  of  commercial  and 
industrial  competition ;  and  to  maintain  its  high  rank  it  must  rely 
on  the  brains  of  its  citizens  as  well  as  on  its  resources.  As  we 
have  learned  much  from  Germany  in  the  realms  of  higher  learn- 
ing, we  can  profit,  too,  by  a  study  of  its  wonderful  system  of  ed- 
ucation which  has  for  its  object  the  training  of  each  unit  in  its 
national  life  for  the  highest  efficiency.  Germany  in  many  respects 
is  in  the  lead  in  many  industrial  lines.  This  lead  is  due  to  the 
application  of  scientific  knowledge  and  educational  methods  to  all 
departments  of  human  activity.  In  the  city  schools,  as  well  as  in 
the  rural  schools,-provision  should  be  made  for  trade  schools,  tech- 
nical schools  and  farm  schools,  and  the  result  would  be  the  in- 
creased intelligence  of  our  people — greater  prosperity  and  greater 
happiness.  The  manual  training  movement,  broadening  as  it  does 
the  term  education,  should  attract  to  the  cause  of  teaching  many 
of  the  ablest  minds  and  secure  both  higher  appreciation  and  higher 
remuneration  for  the  teacher.  As  President  Roosevelt  said  re- 
cently, "The  teacher  is  the  most  important  functionary  in  our 
social  life." 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  THE  RURAL  SCHOOL. 
By  J.  H.  ACKERMAN. 

It  shall  be  my  purpose  to  discuss  the  rural  school  problem  as 
it  is  presented  in  Oregon  today.  The  graded  school  has  its  prob- 
lems, but  in  my  opinion  they  are  at  this  moment  far  less  urgent 
than  those  presented  by  the  rural  school,  and  this  must  serve 
as  an  excuse  for  devoting  a  period  of  this  Congress  to  the  condi- 
tions and  needs  of  the  many  one-room  country  schools,  where 
more  than  half  of  the  children  of  the  state  must  receive  their 
elementary  schooling— all  that  most  of  them  ever  get. 

These  country  children  are  in  most  respects  happily  situ- 
ated. The  beauties  of  nature  smile  upon  them  and  her  magical 
voices  call  to  them  in  the  solitude  of  field  and  farm.  They  have 
a  healthful  environment.  The  example  of  virtue  and  honor  in 


78  Lewis  and  Clark  Educational  Congress. 

the  home  and  the  community  is  in  the  main  before  them.  Duties 
many  and  continuous  await  them,  and  their  labor  is  devoted  to 
definite  ends.  They  have  time  for  quiet  reflection  and  opportuni- 
ties to  use  their  reason  and  judgment.  Their  environment  is 
well  suited  to  develop  a  strong  body  and  an  active,  vigorous 
mind.  No  class  of  our  youth  gives  greater  promise  of  usefulness. 
For  the  most  part  these  children  are  well  born.  They  have  good 
bodies,  with  senses  acute,  nervous  systems  capable  of  responding 
to  outside  impressions,  untainted  blood,  good  digestions,  capacious 
lungs. 

These  children  have  a  right  to  healthy,  well-trained  bodies, 
to  the  judgment  and  direction  of  intelligent  parents,  or  guardians, 
to  cheerful  and  helpful  surroundings,  to  the  best  intellectual, 
moral  and  industrial  training  that  the  age  affords,  to  membership 
in  happy  homes;  in  short,  to  everything  comprehended  in  the 
words  "education"  and  "training."  .  They  should  have  a  better 
chance  to  enter  upon  and  enjoy  a  fuller  and  richer  life  than  any 
preceding  generation  of  children  ever  had.  These  country  chil- 
dren deserve  and  have  a  right  to  demand  school  privileges  in 
every  way  equal  to  those  accorded  to  the  children  of  towns  and 
cities. 

That  the  school  privileges  of  the  present  accorded  them  are 
not  equal  to  those  provided  in  the  graded  schools  of  our  towns 
and  cities  cannot  be  questioned  by  anyone  at  all  familiar  with  the 
facts.  It  is  conceded  by  all  students  of  education  that  the  condi- 
tions in  the  country  schools  are  not  today  what  they  should  be  for 
the  proper  preparation  of  the  country  boys  and  girls  for  American 
citizenship.  These  conditions  are  wretched ;  ill-kept,  poorly-fur- 
nished, and  inadequate  school  buildings,  surroundings  the  most 
depressing,  the  schools  too  small  to  present  conditions  for  suc- 
cessful work,  teachers  deficient  in  experience  and  scholarship, 
frequent  change  of  teachers,  poor  classification,  and  the  school 
year  more  than  one  month  less  in  the  average  than  prevails  in 
towns  and  cities. 

It  is  not  intended  to  convey  the  impression  that  there  are  not 
rural  schools  well  housed,  with  trained,  experienced,  progressive 
teachers,  and  with  teaching  equipment  entirely  adequate,  nor  that 
there  are  not  some  localities  whose  pupils  attend  with  a  reason- 
able degree  of  regularity  for  a  reasonable  number  of  years.  We 
are  not  unmindful  of  the  fact  that  there  are  many  country  schools 
superior  to  some  graded  schools,  and  I  hasten  to  say  that  not  all 
teachers  in  the  rural  school  are  with  little  or  no  experience  and 
of  meager  education.  Some  of  our  best  teachers  labor  from  choice 
in  the  country.  Then,  too,  it  often  happens  that  the  young  teacher 
with  her  first  school  in  a  remote  country  district  does  work  of 
the  highest  merit.  I  am  persuaded  that  much  of  the  teaching  done 
in  the  schools  under  consideration  will  bear  favorable  comparison 


The  Problem  of  the  Rural  School.  79 

with  the  best  teaching  in  our  cities.  No  teacher  who  labors  in 
the  country  need  apologize  for  the  fact ;  neither  should  she  feel 
that  the  work  given  her  to_  do  is  of  less  importance  than  that 
undertaken  in  the  more  pretentious  city  position.  Nevertheless 
the  fact  that  some  country  schools  are  doing  good  work  only 
proves  what  may  be  done  in  all  country  schools  where  right  con- 
ditions prevail.  It  is  for  such  conditions  that  we  are  pleading 
today,  and  the  number  of  such  schools  is  not  so  large  as  to  elimi- 
nate the  rural  school  problem. 

The  rural  school  teacher  has  so  many  disadvantages  with 
which  to  contend,  cold  rooms,  at  times  inconvenient  boarding 
places,  many  grades,  including  many  classes,  short  terms  of  em- 
ployment, smaller  salary  than  the  city  teacher,  and  few  social 
pleasures  and  opportunities — all  these  tend  to  make  the  vocation  of 
the  rural  school  teacher  undesirable.  No  wonder  that  we  find 
the  personnel  of  the  rural  school  corps  changing  almost  entirely 
once  in  every  three  years.  While  this  state  of  affairs  obtains,  it 
-will  be  well  nigh  impossible  to  secure  a  class  of  well-trained, 
fully  developed,  rural  school  teachers.  In  the  good  time  coming, 
the  rural  school  teacher  will  receive  as  much  per  month  for  as 
many  months  in  the  year  as  the  city  teacher,  and  the  rural  school 
will  demand  equal  talent,  experience  and  preparation. 

Am  I  asking  too  much  for  the  country  school  when  I  so 
prophesy?  If  so,  may  I  ask  what  crime  the  country  boy  or  girl 
has  committed  which  shall  deprive  him  or  her  of  just  as  good 
school  conditions  as  is  afforded  the  city  boy  or  girl?  I  hold  that 
it  is  the  right  of  every  child  to  make  the  most  of  himself,  to  the 
development  of  his  God-given  faculties  by  education ;  and  that 
it  is  the  duty  of  the  state  and  of  the  community  to  give  him  this 
chance  by  providing  adequate  means  for  his  education.  It  is  the 
divine  right  of  every  child  to  have  this  chance,  a  right  as  inher- 
ent as  his  right  to  breathe  God's  free  air  and  enjoy  God's  glad 
sunshine.  It  is  the  civil,  moral  and  religious  duty  of  every  state, 
of  every  community  and  of  every  individual  to  help  to  give  to 
every  child  this  chance,  a  duty  as  binding  as  the  duty  of  self- 
protection,  as  the  duty  of  service  to  God  and  humanity.  The  duty 
of  the  .community  to  give  it  follows  logically  from  the  right  of 
the  child  to  have  it. 

Of  all  the  imperfections  enumerated,  the  country  schools 
suffer  most  from  the  frequent  change  of  teachers.  Most  of  the 
teachers  employed  in  the  graded  schools  of  the  state  are  employed 
for  the  full  year,  beginning  with  the  fall  term,  and  it  is  the  com- 
mon practice  to  elect  the  successful  ones  from  year  to  year.  This 
practice  does  not  prevail  in  the  country.  This  frequent  change  of 
teachers  results  in  an  enormous  waste.  No  school  is  up  to  its 
maximum  efficiency  when  teachers  and  pupils  are  strange.  This 
loss  is  particularly  great  in  the  country  school  where  the  classifi- 


80  Lewis  and  Clark  Educational  Congress. 

cation  is  less  perfect  and  where  the  teacher  requires  considerable 
time  in  which  to  determine  the  status  of  the  individual  pupils  as 
to  advancement  and  as  to  ability  to  work.  Now,  if  this  process 
must  be  gone  thro'ugh  with  every  few  months  it  will  readily  be 
seen  that  the  loss  to  our  schools  from  this  alone  is  very  great. 

Furthermore,  the  country  school  loses  in  comparison  to  the 
graded  school  in  the  matter  of  classification.  Where  all  the  classes 
from  six  to  eight  grades  must  come  before  the  teacher  daily,  the 
period  for  each  recitation  must  be  so  short  as  to  impair  its  effi- 
ciency. Then,  too,  the  teacher,  by  giving  attention  to  a  larger 
number  of  subjects,  cannot  do  the  effective  work  that  would  be 
possible  with  her  energy  centered  in  the  work  of  a  few  grades 
instead  of  so  many.  Again,  the  classes  in  fully  three-fourths  of 
our  country  schools  are  exceedingly  small,  containing  in  hun- 
dreds of  instances  but  one  pupil.  In  such  instances  all  the  in- 
struction becomes  individual.  Such  a  condition  is  unfortunate 
for  any  school.  While  individual  instruction  should  never  be 
precluded,  there  is  yet  a  value  in  class  instruction  that  is  lost  to 
the  pupil  who  must  recite  by  himself.  Children  learn  from  one 
another.  In  a  class  of  pupils  there  is  the  contact  of  mind  with 
mind.  The  spirit  of  emulation  is  awakened.  The  interest  is 
sustained  and  advance  is  more  rapid. 

As  I  have  previously  hinted,  until  the  conditions  are  changed, 
the  work  of  teaching  a  rural  school  will  simply  be  used  as  train- 
ing for  village  and  city  schools,  or  as  stepping  stones  to  other 
vocations.  This  new  country  with  its  manifold  opportunities 
offers  too  many  tempting  chances  of  steady  employment  at  fair 
wages  to  permit  a  bright  young  man  to  go  on  year  after  year 
holding  a  seven  months'  position  at  $35  or  $40  a  month. 

In  view  of  these  conditions,  I  believe  that  any  unbiased  mind 
will  concede  that  so  far  as  school  privileges  are  concerned,  the 
country  child  is  placed  in  comparison  with  the  city  child  at  a 
great  disadvantage  in  that  a  smaller  per  cent  of  his  teachers  are 
trained  and  experienced ;  he  must  suffer  the  annoyance  and  loss 
incident  to  frequent  change  of  teachers  and  in  social  privileges 
because  of  the  prevalent  small  school ;  he  often  loses  the  inspira- 
tion of  numbers  in  his  class  work;  his  school  year  is  shorter  and 
he  has  no  high  school  privileges  in  his  home  district.  Considering 
these  facts,  no  one,  I  think,  will  deny  that  we  have  a  rural  school 
problem  in  Oregon. 

One  day  last  spring  a  great  longing  came  over  me  to  visit 
once  again  my  old  school  and  look  again  into  the  faces  of  the  boys 
and  girls  to  whom  I  had  bidden  goodbye  some  years  ago;  but 
when  I  came  to  realize  that  nearly  every  child  had,  in  the  natural 
course  of  events,  passed  out  of  the  school,  and  that  none  would 
be  left  to  greet  me,  a  feeling  of  loneliness  and  responsibility 
came  over  me.  Loneliness,  on  account  of  the  absence  of  my  young 


The  Problem  of  the  Rural  School  81 

friends,  and  responsibility  when  I  fully  realized  that  I  could  not 
lift  from  my  shoulders  the  weight  of  personal  responsibility  which 
has  rested  upon  them  while  performing  the  duties  of  my  present 
position.  I  somehow  had  never  before  had  brought  to  me  so 
vividly  the  realizing  sense,  that  during  that  time  not  only  the 
children  of  that  particular  school,  but  a  whole  generation  of 
children  had  entered  and  passed  through  the  elementary  schools 
of  the  state.  I  felt  that  this  educational  work  could  not  be 
postponed.  It  must  be  done  now  or  forever  go  unaccomplished. 
It  cannot  wait  until  the  mortgages  are  paid,  the  houses  built,  the 
factories  established,  the  orchards  and  vineyards  planted,  and 
the  streets  paved.  It  cannot  wait  until  poverty  has  been  annihi- 
lated, drunkenness  cured,  public  officials  made  incorruptible,  the 
heathen  Christianized,  or  right  views  of  the  public  finance  in- 
stilled into  the  minds  of  all  citizens.  No,  the  period  of  growth  is 
the  period  of  culture,  and  if  this  generation  is  to  be  educated, 
moulded,  trained,  it  must  be  done  while  the  minds  and  bodies  are 
plastic.  Any  other  interest  of  society  can  wait,  but  the  high  tide 
of  educational  opportunity  comes  but  once  to  each  generation. 
This  doctrine  is  old  and  universally  accepted.  I  am  speaking  plati- 
tudes; but  we  are  not  yet  acting  in  accord  with  our  belief.  If 
these  children  were  Hambletonian  colts  there  would  be  no  ques- 
tion of  their  successful  development  into  fleet  and  sure-footed 
racers ;  alas,  they  are  only  boys  and  girls. 

It  is  often  deliberately  stated  that  because  admirable  results 
were  developed  in  the  exceptional  individual  in  the  old  school  with 
its  lack  of  system  and  its  infinitely  irregular  courses  of  study,  our 
modern  school,  so  carefully  systematized,  offers  no  improvement. 
That  the  method  of  the  old  school,  or  lack  of  method,  would  be 
today  impossible  is  self-evident.  Times  and  conditions  have 
changed.  The  country  grocery  of  a  past  age  could  not  success- 
fully fill  the  place  the  department  store  occupies  at  the  present 
time.  The  public  school  system  without  the  system  would  fall  to 
pieces.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  school  system  is  here,  it  abides,  it 
is  a  fixed  institution,  yet  in  a  way  it  changes,  takes  on  new  form, 
and  gradually  assumes  new  prerogatives.  Years  ago,  Horace  Mann 
said:  "When  anything  is  growing,  one  former  is  worth  a  thou- 
sand reformers."  This,  applied  to  the  schools  of  a  state,  bears 
with  it  deep  significance.  It  is  the  truth.  The  school  system  of 
any  state  is  a  growth.  It  is  a  development,  an  evolution.  From 
decade  to  decade  and  generation  to  generation  the  school  sys- 
tem is  changed  as  new  needs  and  duties  arise.  There  is  ever 
present  the  elements  of  adjustability  and  change.  Fundamentals 
remain,  non-essentials  pass  away. 

No  nation  or  individual  has  ever  become  great  without  a 
high  ideal.  That  the  founders  of  our  rural  school  had  a  high 
ideal  there  is  no  question.  That  we  have  not  attained  that  ideal 


82  Lewis  and  Clark  Educational  Congress. 

is  equally  true.  Still  we  should  ever  be  found  holding  fast  to 
that  which  is  good  and  constantly  reaching  out  for  better  things. 
This  is  what  thousands  of  teachers  are  doing  in  this  broad  land 
of  ours,  and  all  honor  should  be  paid  to  them ;  but  it  is  necessary 
that  we  know  just  what  we  are  trying  to  secure  as  a  result  of  our 
work;  hence,  the  necessity  of  discussing  again  and  again  such 
questions  as  we  have  before  us  today.  I  contend  that  we  have 
made  progress.  The  courses  of  study  of  today,  with  all  their 
faults,  are  vastly  better  than  the  meager  courses  of  generations 
ago.  The  rural  school  is  fighting  for  its  proper  place  in  the 
line  of  battle.  I  have  presented,  and  I  believe  without  exag- 
geration, some  of  the  weaknesses  that  cripple  the  efficiency  of 
many  of  our  country  schools.  A  wise  and  liberal  policy  on  the 
part  of  school  boards  will  remove  some  of  the  weaknesses.  The 
schoolhouse  may  be  made  attractive,  the  surroundings  made 
beautiful,  the  length  of  the  school  year  increased,  and  one  teacher, 
and  she  a  competent  one,  employed  for  the  full  year.  But  some 
of  the  weaknesses  I  have  depicted  are  inherent,  and  will  not  be 
removed  unless  radical  changes  are  made  along  certain  lines.  In 
suggesting  changes,  I  fully  realize  that  it  is  much  easier  to  be 
destructive  than  constructive,  and  methinks  I  hear  some  one  say 
that  the  conditions  are  only  too  true,  but  what  remedy  have  I 
to  suggest. 

In  proposing  the  remedies  I  have  ever  striven  to  remember 
that  the  present  rural  system  is  the  result  of  many  a  hard-fought 
battle  on  the  part  of  its  friends ;  to  remember  how  little  one  could 
do  in  the  ordinary  course  of  a  lifetime  in  organizing  and  perfect- 
ing a  new  system,  should  every  vestige  of  the  present  system 
be  so  obliterated  that  there  would  be  no  remembrance  that  such 
a  thing  as  a  school  system  ever  existed ;  hence,  a  person  ought  to 
be  humble  and  hesitate  to  criticize  unless  he  knows  full  well  that 
he  could  evolve  a  better  one. 

As  partial  remedies  for  these  inherent  weaknesses,  the  fol- 
lowing are  suggested:  First,  the  consolidation,  where  practical, 
of  school  districts  and  the  transportation  of  children  to  centers ; 
second,  a  modified  "course  of  study  for  rural  schools,  eliminating 
certain  parts  prescribed  for  city  schools,  and  providing  for  the  in- 
troduction of  work,  especially  in  the  elements  of  agriculture  and 
of  domestic  science,  and  such  further  lines  of  industrial  educa- 
tion as  local  conditions  may  make  feasible ;  and  also  providing 
work  with  reference  to  meeting  the  needs  of  the  children  in  rural 
communities  and  not  with  reference  to  preparing  a  small  per- 
centage to  enter  higher  schools  whose  courses  of  study  are  formu- 
lated not  to  meet  the  demands  of  a  great  majority  attending 
them,  but  to  prepare  the  remaining  small  minority  to  enter  some 
still  higher  school ;  and,  third,  prohibiting  by  legislative  enactment 
any  person  from  teaching  a  rural  school  who  has  not  been  spe- 


The  Problem  of  the  Rural  School.  8£ 

cially  trained  for  rural  school  work  in  accordance  with  such  a 
modified  course  of  study  as  I  have  just  indicated. 

It  is  safe  to  say  that  no  other  educational  question  of  organi- 
zation and  administration  has  been  given  equal  consid- 
eration with  centralization  of  rural  schools,  during  the  past  five 
years.  The  National  Educational  Association  watches  with  deep 
interest  the  solution  of  the  problem  of  consolidation  of  rural 
schools  and  transporting  pupils  at  public  expense,  now  attempted 
in  many  of  our  leading  states,  and  for  which  we,  in  our  own 
state,  have  recently  received  legislative  sanction.  We  believe 
that  this  movement  will  lead  to  the  establishment  of  district 
and  county  high  schools,  and  thus  bring  more  advanced  education 
to  rural  communities.  Under  the  system  proposed  the  farm  be- 
comes the  ideal  place  to  bring  up  children,  enabling  them  to  obtain 
the  advantages  enjoyed  by  our  centers  of  population,  and  yet  to 
spend  their  evenings  and  holidays  in  the  country,  "under  the 
constant,  tender  care  of  father  and  mother,  in  contact  with  nature 
and  plenty  of  work,  instead  of  idly  loafing  about  town." 

Consolidation  will  often  logically  and  properly  center  about 
towns  and  villages.  Contact  of  the  country  boy  with  his  rugged 
manner,  straightforward  honesty,  plodding  habits  of  persistent 
industry,  with  the  boy  of  the  city,  molded  by  its  cultured  society 
and  its  atmosphere  of  taste  and  refinement,  may  be  valuable  to 
both.  However,  in  the  illustration  here  taken  it  is  not  intended 
to  consolidate  about  a  village.  To  provide  better  school  facili- 
ties by  consolidation,  it  is  intended  to  conserve  and  broaden  coun- 
try life,  to  make  it  distinctly  more  dignified,  more  honorable, 
more  lucrative,  and  more  attractive ;  to  educate  toward  it,  not  from 
it.  In  such  a  school  the  social  life  of  the  children  is  undenied, 
the  circle  of  acquaintance  is  extended,  classes  are  larger  and  there 
is  the  contact  of  mind  with  mind  that  is  absent  in  the  class  of 
one.  pupil.  And,  finally  the  teacher  is  permitted  to  concentrate 
her  energies  on  a  few  grades  instead  of  teaching  them  all;  to 
have  comparatively  few  recitations  instead  of  many,  and  to 
have  twice  as  much  time  for  each  recitation  as  in  the  school  where 
the  whole  range  of  classes  must  come  before  her.  Many  people 
have  the  impression  that  consolidation  means  the  abandoning 
of  country  schools  and  the  transportation  of  the  children  to  cities 
and  towns,  where  they  are  taken  into  an  entirely  different  environ- 
ment. But  the  consolidation  I  am  contending  for  contemplates 
nothing  of  the  kind.  I  believe  the  school  environment  in  the  coun- 
try is  in  many  ways  superior  to  that  in  the  city.  I  want  the 
country  school  to  remain  in  the  country,  so  far  as  possible,  but 
I  want  it  large  enough  for  the  employment  of  from  two  to  five 
teachers,  and  with  no  teacher  in  charge  of  less  than  twenty-five  nor 
more  than  thirty  pupils.  Such  a  school  organization  might  cost 
the  people  more  in  dollars  and  cents,  hence,  the  possible  saving 


84  Lewis  and  Clark  Educational  Congress. 

in  money  is  not  the  ground  upon  which  the  change  is  urged.  The 
end  of  consolidation  is  to  get  better  schools  and  to  multiply  the 
benefits  to  the  children.  Consolidation  commends  itself  to  our 
favor  because  it  offers  the  opportunity  for  proper  classification, 
for  the  assignment  of  a  reasonable  number  of  pupils  to  the 
teacher,  for  regular  and  punctual  attendance,  and,  hence,  for  a 
vast  increase  to  the  pupils  of  the  benefits  the  school  can  bestow. 

The  small  school  serves  but  few  people,  and  is  supplied  by 
the  taxes  raised  on  a  comparatively  small  amount  of  property. 
Neither  the  public  interest  nor  the  financial  support  is,  therefore, 
likely  to  be  such  as  to  encourage  the  development  of  the  school. 
While  advancement  is  noted  all  around,  in  every  business  and 
every  department  of  human  endeavor,  the  little  country  school  is 
likely  to  conform  very  closely  to  the  type  of  school  of  a  past 
generation.  But  unite  the  interests  of  a  large  number  of  people 
in  the  school,  bring  to  its  support  the  taxes  on  a  larger  aggrega- 
tion of  property,  and  better  conditions  will  be  speedily  and  easily 
secured.  Union  and  co-operation  alone  will  make  possible  the 
twentieth  century  school.  We  may  project  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury school  into  the  twentieth  century,  but  the  school  that  keeps 
pace  with  the  times  and  meets  the  demand  of  the  age,  must  have 
the  interest  and  financial  support  of  many  people  and  the  serv- 
ices of  a  number  of  skilled  teachers  working  in  co-operation. 

With  the  consolidation  of  districts,  in  time  will  come  good 
roads,  improved  carriages  and  wagons,  telephonic  communication, 
the  daily  paper,  rural  free  delivery.  These  all  annihilate  distance 
and  bring  the  people  of  a  community  nearer  together  than  they 
were  under  more  adverse  circumstances  in  the  old-fashioned  dis- 
trict. Ours  is  a  progressive  age.  Wre  are  constantly  called  upon 
to  remove  a  blind  allegiance  to  memorials  of  the  past,  and  to  stand 
for  the  attainment  of  that  which  is  in  harmony  with  the  present 
and  which  inures  to  our  future  good.  The  initiative  in  the  matter 
of  country  school  consolidation,  if  taken  at  all,  must  be  taken  by 
the  people  in  the  rural  communities.  The  change,  therefore, 
cannot  come  suddenly.  All  the  difficulties  in  the  way,  and  there 
are  difficulties,  must  be  carefully  weighed,  the  local  conditions  in 
each  community  consulted,  and  the  benefits  of  the  proposed 
changes  proven  to  the  people  beyond  dispute  before  the  little  dis- 
tricts will  be  abandoned  and  the  larger  school  units  established. 
I  am  glad  this  power  rests  with  the  people,  for  though  changes 
sorely  needed  may  be  delayed,  when  they  come  they  will  be  abid- 
ing and  will  have,  each  of  them,  the  support  of  the  people  and 
will  bespeak  intelligent  direction  by  the  people.  We  should  ac- 
cept the  situation,  make  use  of  our  opportunities,  and  success 
will  eventually  attend  the  effort.  "Everything  can  be  moved 
if  we  touch  the  right  spring,"  and  "adapt  the  means  to  the 
end." 


.  The  Problem  of  the  Rural  School.  85 

The  relation  of  the  rural  school  to  the  farmer  is  an  important 
one.  The  rural  school  gives,  or  should  give,  vitality  to  farm 
life  as  directly  as  food  nourishes  the  body.  It  is  the  controlling, 
moulding  influence  that  shapes  human  life.  It  ought  to  fit  farm- 
ers for  their  duties  as  men  and  as  citizens ;  and  with  the  present 
light  of  science  to  guide  the  school  in  the  country  in  our  day  it 
ought  to  do  more  than  this.  It  ought  to  fit  men  in  some  degree 
for  their  occupation  as  agriculturalists.  If  the  country  school  is 
to  fulfill  its  mission  to  its  community  as  the  handmaid  of  agricul- 
ture, it  must  be  different  from  the  town  school.  It  must  be  a 
school  adapted  to  the  needs  of  the  community  in  which  it  is. 
Until  recently,  to  the  shame  of  our  nineteenth  century  scholar- 
ship, be  it  said,  no  effort  at  adaptation  of  rural  education  to  the 
needs  of  the  people  has  been  made  in  country  schools.  All  minds 
and  all  tastes  have  been  forced  into  one  mould  of  education. 
Country  children  have  been  treated  as  having  but  few  needs.  The 
farmer's  needs  are  varied,  most  important,  most  urgent.  To 
meet  these  he  must  have  the  advantage  of  the  best  schools,  and 
the  best  schools  for  him  are  the  ones  that  teach  him  the  things 
that  he  needs  to  know.  What  does  he  need  to  know?  What  are 
the  farmer's  educational  needs?  As  a  man  and  a  citizen,  his 
needs  are  precisely  the  same  as  those  of  other  men  and  other 
citizens — fully  as  great — no  less.  He  must  be  taught  the  things 
that  other  citizens  find  it  necessary  to  know — to  read,  to  write, 
to  compute.  The  studies  to  meet  these  needs  are  well  defined 
and  for  the  most  part  are  fairly  taught.  As  an  agriculturalist, 
his  needs  have  not  been  so  well  understood.  He  is  dealing  with 
the  natural  world.  His  enjoyment  and  his  livelihood  depend 
upon  his  understanding  the  laws  that  control  in  the  natural  world. 
He  must,  therefore,  know  nature.  The  studies  adapted  to  his 
needs  in  this  respect  can  scarcely  be  said  to  be  taught  at  all  in 
the  country  schools.  I  have  said  that  he  deals  with  natural 
things.  Obviously,  therefore,  he  ought  to  be  instructed  in  these 
things,  and  hence,  elementary  agriculture  should  form  a  part  of 
the  course  in  rural  schools,  if  they  are  to  meet  the  educatibnal 
needs  of  the  people  who  surround  them — the  farming  people 
of  the  state.  Can  this  be  done?  Yes;  but  there  must  be  an 
elimination  from  the  present  course  of  all  non-essentials — all  that 
has  become  obsolete — all  that  is  not  essential  to  fit  him  for  his 
environment.  This  does  not  mean  that  certain  subjects  shall  be 
omitted,  but  that  the  subjects  themselves  shall  be  pruned  of  all 
dead  matter,  so  to  speak.  This  can  be  very  properly  and  profit- 
ably done  in  the  subjects  of  arithmetic,  history,  grammar  and 
geo'graphy. 

The  objection  to  the  introduction  of  elementary  agriculture 
at  the  present  time  is  the  inadequate  preparation  of  teachers  along 
this  line.  The  same  condition  existed  at  the  time  drawing  and 


86  Lewis  and  Clark  Educational  Congress. 

music  were  introduced,  but  where  the  demand  was  created  the 
proper  preparation  was  made.  A  favorite  scheme  of  mine  is  to 
arrange  the  rural  schools  in  groups  and  assign  a  teacher  of  agri- 
culture to  each  group — a  teacher  who  is  a  specialist,  who  could 
go  from  school  to  school  in  his  group,  as  the  specialist  in  draw- 
ing, music  and  physical  culture  goes  in  the  city  from  building  to 
building  and  from  room  to  room.  What  a  world  of  good  could 
be  accomplished ;  how  the  beauties  of  nature  would  grow  on  the 
minds  and  hearts  of  pupils  in  such  schools  when  directed  by  a 
well-trained  teacher.  For  a  laboratory  he  has  all  the  world  at 
hand.  May  I  again  ask,  is  not  the  country  boy  and  girl  entitled 
to  a  special  teacher  for  his  or  her  special  calling  as  is  the  city 
boy  and  girl?  Such  a  teacher  could  have  a  vehicle  to  convey 
his  apparatus  from  school  to  school,  which  reverses  the  city 
method  in  that  it  moves  the  apparatus  from  class  to  class,  instead 
of  moving  different  classes  to  the  apparatus.  Do  you  call  the 
scheme  Utopian?  It  is  entirely  practicable.  Do  you  shudder  at 
the  cost?  Well,  that  is  something;  but  not  nearly  what  you  may 
imagine.  Oregon  is  good  tenting  ground  for  such  a  radical 
advance,  and  I  believe  the  rural  districts  are  ready  for  it,  notwith- 
standing it  would  mean  the  uprooting  of  many  hoary  prejudices. 

The  question  of  industrial  education  in  rural  schools  has  been 
a  live  one  in  the  deliberations  of  the  National  Educational  Asso- 
ciation. So  much  so  that  on  July  6,  1903,  the  following  resolution 
was  unanimously  adopted : 

"Resolved,  That  the  National  Educational  Association  be 
requested  by  the  board  of  directors  of  the  National  Educational 
Association  to  appoint  a  committee  to  report  to  that  body,  after 
such  investigation  as  may  seem  desirable,  conclusions  as  to  what 
should  be  undertaken  in  the  field  of  industrial  education  in  schools 
for  rural  communities,  and  to  recommend  such  an  appropriation 
as  may  be  necessary  for  carrying  on  the  investigation  and  prepa- 
ration of  this  report." 

This  resolution  resulted  in  the  appointing  of  a  committee 
and  an  appropriation  of  $500  for  a  committee  of  five  to  investi- 
gate and  report  to  the  council  upon  the  subject  of  industrial  edu- 
cation in  schools  in  rural  communities. 

I  can  do  no  better  in  concluding  this  phase  of  the  discussion 
than  to  quote  the  general  conclusions  reached  by  the  committee 
as  reported  to  the  National  Council  of  Education  at  its  July 
meeting,  1905,  and  also  to  refer  you  to  the  committee's  argu- 
ment for  industrial  education  in  schools  for  rural  communities. 
The  general  conclusions  reached  by  the  committee  may  be  summed 
up  as  follows : 

1.  That  in  existing  one-room  district  schools  a  limited 
amount  of  nature  study  and  work  in  the  elements  of  agriculture, 
and  hand-work  for  both  boys  and  girls  may  be  undertaken;  that 


The  Problem  of  the  Rural  School  87 

in  view  of  the  quality  of  the  teaching  force  available  for  these 
schools,  the  immaturity  of  the  greater  number  of  the  pupils,  the 
crowded  condition  of  the  programme,  and  the  lack  of  adequate 
supervision,  but  little  can  be  expected  in  the  way  of  industrial 
education  in  this  class  of  schools ;  but  where  enthusiastic  teachers 
qualified  for  the  work,  and  pupils  of  sufficient  maturity  are 
brought  together  in  the  same  school,  something  worth  while  may 
be  accomplished,  and  that  the  effort  for  such  accomplishment 
should  certainly  be  made. 

2.  That   in   the   consolidated    school   having   at   least   four 
teachers,  one  of  whom  is  prepared  to  teach  the  elements  of  agricul- 
ture and  manual  training,  and  another  domestic  science,  very  much 
more  in  the  field  of  industrial  education  may  be  attempted  than 
in  the  one-room  school,  and  with  far  better  results.     The  com- 
mittee believes  this  to  be  true,  because  in  such  schools  teachers 
may  be  secured  with  far  better  qualifications  than  are  possessed 
by  most  of  the  teachers  in  the  one-room  schools,  and  because  in 
many  cases  pupils  will  remain  for  one  or  more  years  after  com- 
pleting the  elementary  school  course,  during  which  time  the  work 
in  industrial  education  may  be  continued.     In  the  consolidated 
school   district,  in  most  cases,   new  buildings   must  be  erected. 
At  small  expense  rooms  may  be  provided  for  manual  training 
and  domestic  science  work,  and  a  plot  of  land  as  a  part  of  the 
school  grounds  set  apart  for  illustrative  and  experimental  work 
in   agriculture.     While   the   committee   does   not   wish   to   enter 
into  any  argument  in  favor  of  consolidated  schools  for  other  rea- 
sons than  for  the  facilities  they  may  afford  for  industrial  educa- 
tion, it  wishes  to  endorse  most  heartily  that  portion  of  the  report 
of   the   committee   of   twelve   on   rural   schools,    concerning   the 
advantages  of  the  consolidated  school. 

3.  That  in  the  township  or  other  distinctly  rural  high  school, 
and  in  the  village  high  school  attended  by  a  considerable  num- 
ber  of  pupils   from   the   country,   a   modification   of   courses   of 
study  should  be  made  which  shall  provide  for  the  introduction 
of  work,  especially  in  the  elements  of  agriculture  and  domestic 
science,  and  such  further  lines  of  industrial  education  as  local 
conditions  may  make   feasible.     To  make  this   work  a  success, 
teachers  must  be  secured  who  have  made  special  preparation  for 
it.     For  such  schools  a  text-book  treating  botany  from  an  agri- 
cultural and  economic  standpoint  is  greatly  needed. 

4.  That   while   the   agricultural   or   industrial   high   school 
is  found  in  but  few  localities,  the  character  of  the  work  already 
done    in    the    existing    schools   of    this    class,    the    interest    they 
awaken,  and  the  hearty  support  they  receive  from  the  agricultural 
communities  maintaining  them,  the  history  of  these  schools   in 
foreign  countries,  the  value  of  their  work  both  for  disciplinary 
and  practical  purposes,  all  combine  to  present  the  strongest  rea- 


88  Lewis  and  Clark  Educational  Congress. 

sons  for  the  organization  of  schools  of  this  type  in  large  numbers, 
in  agricultural  communities.  So  thoroughly  is  the  committee 
convinced  of  the  importance  of  industrial  education  in  rural 
communities  and  what  is  essential  for  making  this  education 
effective,  that  in  their  opinion  the  establishment  of  secondary 
schools  distinctly  industrial  in  their  character  and  of  the  type 
mentioned,  is  an  absolute  necessity  for  the  proper  development 
and  organization  of  the  rural  school  system. 

5.  That  the  agricultural  colleges  and  experiment  stations 
have  already  done  much  in  the  formulation  of  a  body  of  knowl- 
edge essential  in  the  field  of  industrial  education,  but  that  more 
yet  remains  to  be  done  in  putting  this  body  of  knowledge  into 
visible  form  for  use  in  elementary  and  secondary  schools ;  and 
that  effort  in  this  direction  should  be  made  a  prominent  feature 
in  the  work  of  the  agricultural  colleges  of  the  country. 

6.  That  the  mastery  of  such  parts  of  this  rapidly  develop- 
ing body  of  knowledge  as  is  within  the  capabilities  of  elementary 
and  secondary  school  pupils,  furnishes  a  mental  training  unsur- 
passed in  extent  and  quality  by  the  mastery  of  any  other  body 
of  knowledge  now  regarded  as  essential  in  our  common  school 
courses  and  requiring  an  equal  amount  of  time;  and  that  for 
utility  value  it  is  not  equaled  by  any  other  body  of  knowledge 
at  present  acquired  through  the  expenditure  of  the  same  amount 
of  time  and  effort. 

7.  That  for  the  improvement  of  educational  conditions  in 
rural   communities,   the   people   in   those   communities   must   be 
educated   to   see   and    appreciate  the   possibilities    and   value   of 
industrial  education;  that  the  value  of  this  kind  of  education  in 
increasing  the  productive  capacity  of  those  being  educated  is  the 
argument  which  appeals  most  strongly  to  the  rural  population. 
Therefore,  in  the  beginnings  of  industrial  education  in  any  com- 
munity, immediate,  practical  results  that  will  appeal  directly  to 
the  interests  of  the  people  who  support  and  maintain  the  schools 
must  be  made  prominent  by  those  concerned  with  its  develop- 
ment. 

8.  That  it  is  possible  and  desirable  so  to  organize  the  rural 
school  system  as  to  present  an  articulated  series  of  schools  from 
the  elementary  school  to  and  including  the  agricultural  college, 
in  which  the  work  at  every  stage  shall  be  planned  and  adminis- 
tered with  reference  to  the  needs  of  the  pupils  at  that  stage  with- 
out the  elimination  of  any  valuable  feature  in  the  present  school 
system,  and  without  abridging  in  any  way  the  opportunities  for 
advancement  of  such  pupils  as  wish  to  enter  other  schools  of 
secondary  or  higher  grades. 

9.  That   in   industrial   education,   as   in   every   other   form, 
the  success  of  the  work  depends  upon  the  quality  of  the  teaching ; 
and  that  therefore,  since  effort  for  industrial  education  in  ele- 


The  Problem  of  the  Rural  School.  89 

mentary  and  secondary  schools  is  comparatively  recent  and  teach- 
ers have  not  prepared  themselves  in  this  field,  special  opportuni- 
ties, and  inducements  must  be  offered  to  the  teaching  force  to 
make  the  necessary  preparation. 

The  rural  schools  are  instructed  by  teachers  who  for  the 
most  part  are  young  girls  and  women  bred  in  our  cities  and  vil- 
lages and  educated  in  graded  schools.  These  young  women,  it 
is  true,  carry  with  them  into  their  fields  of  labor  the  culture  and 
refinement  of  the  cities;  and  yet  they  know  but  little  about  the 
home  environment  of  the  children  they  teach.  They  themselves 
have  been  educated  for  life  in  the  congested  centers  of  population, 
and  the  ideals  they  nurture  in  their  pupils,  the  hopes  and  aspira- 
tions they  stimulate,  will  be  for  the  most  part,  the  ideals,  hopes 
and  aspirations  that  will  attract  their  brighter  pupils  to  the  cities 
for  their  realization  and  fruition.  These  teachers  do  not  care 
to  read  and  become  interested  in  agricultural  and  horticultural 
literature.  Farm  life  has  for  them  no  attraction.  They  are  look- 
ing forward,  as  I  have  said,  to  the  cities  for  the  fruition  of  their 
hopes,  and  their  pupils  will  become,  as  a  result  of  the  contact  with 
their  teachers,  restless  and  discontented  with  the  farm  life  and 
environments. 

It  is  to  the  normal  and  agricultural  schools  that  the  rural 
schools  will  have  to  look,  more  largely  than  they  have  in  the  past, 
for  qualified  teachers;  and  when  our  normal  schools  shall  recog- 
nize this  need  of  specially  trained  teachers  in  rural  districts  and 
shall  have  set  about  to  meet  and  supply  this  demand,  then  will  the 
normal  school  problem  be  effectually  solved,  and  the  normal  school 
will  have  found  its  true  mission. 

Under  the  old  plan  of  education,  our  schools,  from  bottom 
to  top,  influenced  the  movement  of  the  people  from  the  farm ;  but 
not  towards  the  farm  nor  towards  better  farming,  not  away  from 
the  "man  with  the  hoe"  idea.  The  old  philosophy  was  to  educate 
a  man  first  and  then  make  a  specialist  of  him.  The  other  extreme 
which  has  had  more  advocates  and  more  devotees  was  to  choose  a 
specialty  and  bend  all  the  powers  in  that  direction  from  early 
youth.  The  happy  medium  is  best  brought  out  by  the  agricultural 
school  where,  as  in  the  farm  home,  the  watchword  is  mix  indus- 
trial work  and  manual  training  with  school  education.  Our  in- 
dustrial schools  are  revolutionizing  education,  utilizing  literary 
culture  in  a  practical  way  and  making  the  science  useful  to  the 
life  of  a  community  as  well  as  qualifying  them  for  science's  sake. 
Our  agricultural  and  mechanical  schools  are  solving,  have  solved, 
some  of  the  largest  pedagogical  problems  of  the  age.  Here  are 
the  basic  elements  of  a  new  philosophy  of  teaching,  and  the  one 
who  first  analyzes  and  interprets  it  in  written  form  so  as  to  make 
it  generally  useful  will  have  added  a  valuable  element  to  our 
pedagogical  literature.  The  achievements  in  these  matters  are 


90  Lewis  and  Clark  Educational  Congress. 

new,  their  fruits  are  crude,  and  not  as  yet  collected  in  a  com- 
plete system.  But  the  leaven  is  working  and  there  is  reason  for 
the  most  optimistic  faith. 

Teachers  must,  then,  be  interested  and  instructed  in  a  way 
of  thought  and  in  the  methods  of  leading  the  youth  of  the  schools 
under  consideration  into  utilizing  the  things  of  the  farm  and  the 
farm  home  as  the  basis  of  investigation  and  thought.  Experi- 
menting in  teaching,  like  inventing  a  new  device,  will  result  in 
many  failures,  but  soon  successes  will  accumulate  into  a  peda- 
gogical system  which  can  be  used  to  great  advantage  by  all 
teachers  who  are  interested  in  this  line  of  work. 

But,  after  all  has  been  said,  our  schools,  wherever  found, 
will  never  be  much  below  what  the  people  demand,  and  if  we 
had  archangels  for  superintendents  and  teachers,  and  angels  for 
school  directors,  the  schools  would  never  be  made  much  better 
than  the  people  want.  Hence,  one  of  the  greatest  problems,  after 
all,  is  the  proper  education  of  public  opinion.  A  man  need  not 
always  make  a  martyr  of  himself  by  standing  out  in  advance 
of  his  time ;  the  average  man  is  not  called  upon  to  do  that,  and  he 
has  no  right  to  destroy  his  usefulness  by  insisting  upon  what  is 
now  impossible.  We  may  learn  a  lesson  in  this  respect  from 
Abraham  Lincoln,  who,  for  a  while,  allowed  public  opinion  to 
lead  him,  but  when  the  time  was  ripe  stepped  forward  to  the 
head  of  a  movement  of  progress  and  led  it  to  the  accomplishment 
of  his  purpose. 

The  growth  of  the  rural  school  system  supplies  material  for 
a  remarkable,  a  fascinating,  even  a  patriotic  and  glorious  story. 
No  other  great  people  ever  gained  such  splendid  educational  con- 
ception for  the  masses,  for  an  unlimited  education  for  every  son 
and  daughter  of  the  people.  No  other  great  people  ever  attempted 
to  provide  schools  for  every  rod  of  such  wide  and  sparsely  settled 
territory  as  ours.  No  other  great  nation  in  the  world  has  builded 
an  educational  system  upon  such  plans,  so  flexible,  so  adapted  to 
the  national  life.  And  it  has  not  been  done  by  a  monarchy,  or  by 
a  ministry  through  the  use  of  dictatorial  powers,  but  by  millions 
of  the  great  liberal  people,  moved  by  the  highest  motives,  acting 
through  primary  meetings,  and  then  exercising  sovereign  powers 
through  representative  and  responsible  assemblages. 

One  of  the  creations  of  this  common  power  is  our  unique 
system  of  popular  education.  American  schools  have  from  first 
to  last  reflected  American  economic  and  political  conditions.  The 
schools  have  advanced  with  the  growth  of  the  nation  and  the  prog- 
ress of  civilization.  They  are  much  better  housed,  they  do  much 
better  work,  they  are  more  scientifically  taught  than  in  primitive 
days,  but  it  was  far  easier  for  the  early  schools  to  meet  the  de- 
mands of  their  day  than  for  us  to  see  the  tendencies  of  these  seeth- 
ing times  and  meet  the  claims  of  the  multitudes  who  are  waiting 


The  Problem  of  the  Rural  School  91 

upon  us.  Yet  we  may  by  united,  persistent,  well-directed  effort, 
lay  our  hands  on  the  rural  school,  the  school  of  the  masses,  this 
safeguard  of  society,  this  stronghold  of  the  nation,  and  raise  it 
to  a  higher  and  broader  plane  of  usefulness  than  it  has  ever  occu- 
pied. 

HIGHER  AGRICULTURAL  EDUCATION. 
By  E.  A.  BRYAN. 

In  a  singularly  progressive  educational  age,  no  phenomenon 
has  been  more  striking  than  the  rise  of  the  American  agricultural 
colleges.  A  half-century  has  seen  many  achievements  in  educa- 
tion. It  has  seen  the  overthrow  of  blind  subservience  to  authority, 
the  establishment  of  the  doctrine  of  academic  freedom,  the  advent 
of  the  natural  and  physical  sciences  into  the  college  curriculum, 
the  realization  of  an  organized  system  of  public  schools,  the  rise 
of  the  high  school,  and  the  emergence  of  the  great  state  universi- 
ties. But  none  of  these  movements  has  been  more  radical  or  far- 
reaching  or  virile  than  the  establishment  of  the  land-grant  colleges 
and  the  system  of  education  springing  therefrom.  The  word 
"agricultural,"  used  in  this  connection,  is  generic  arid  not  specific. 
It  characterizes  that  entire  system  of  education  inaugurated  with 
the  establishment  of  the  land-grant  colleges — a  system  which  was 
a  protest  against  and  a  revolt  from  the  theory  of  exclusively  lit- 
erary education  and  an  acceptance  of  the  fundamental  doctrine 
of  scientific  and  industrial  education. 

I  need  not  recite  the  history  of  this  movement,  for  it  is  a 
familiar  page  of  modern  history.  Some  forty  great  colleges  and 
universities  endowed  with  large  and  increasing  funds,  equipped 
with  splendid  laboratories,  shops,  and  farms,  each  provided  with  a 
great  corps  'of  investigators  and  teachers,  filled  to  overflowing 
with  students,  exemplify  the  new  doctrine  and  attest  the  greatness 
and  success  of  the  movement,  even  at  this  early  stage.  The  move- 
ment has  reached  other  and  older  institutions,  modifying  their 
curriculum  and  methods.  It  has  reacted  upon  science  itself,  shift- 
ing the  incidence  of  scientific  investigation  and  wholly  modifying 
the  method  of  science  teaching. 

Repeating  history  in  that  the  movement  of  educational  forces 
is  from  above  downward,  the  doctrine  and  the  system  are  extend- 
ing to  the  normal  schools,  the  high  schools,  the  elementary,  and 
particularly  the  rural  schools.  The  farmers'  institutes,  the  farm- 
ers' reading  circles,  the  university  extension  work,  and  the  agri- 
cultural experiment  station  correspondence  (which,  by  the  way, 
is  the  biggest  correspondence  school  in  the  world)  have  become 
powerful  agencies  in  the  agricultural  education  of  these  members 
of  the  communitywho  have  passed  the  school  age. 


92  Lewis  and  Clark  Educational  Congress. 

Omitting  for  the  present  the  discussion  of  the  new  viewpoint 
for  scientific  study  which  is  involved  in  the  movement,  omitting 
the  realm  of  the  mechanics,  arts,  and  other  industrial  phases 
which  are  an  essential  part  of  the  movement;  omitting  manual 
training,  which  is  identical  in  the  fundamental  principles  involved, 
and  turning  to  the  specific  use  of  the  term  agricultural  education, 
it  may  be  pointed  out  that  agricultural  education,  as  it  exists 
today,  is  quite  another  thing  than  that  looked  for  by  the  educa- 
tional theorists  of  a  quarter  of  a  century  ago.  It  is  equally  con- 
trary to  the  hopes  and  speculations  of  many  "practical"  men  who 
championed  the  establishment  of  agricultural  schools.  That  great 
statesman,  Senator  Morrill,  guided,  as  it  were,  by  instinct  rather 
than  by  dogma  or  theory,  "builded  wiser  than  he  knew."  He 
initiated  the  legislation  giving  rise  to  the  agricultural  college 
movement  with  a  wisdom  and  a  breadth  and  a  truth  surpassing 
that  of  the  pedagogical  theorist,  or  the  utilitarian  who  was  his 
contemporary.  The  word  agricultural  as  describing  the  new 
institution  is  generic  rather  than  specific.  It  stands  for  a  system 
of  education  rather  than  training  for  a  specific  occupation  in  life. 
It  aimed  at,  to  use  his  own  words,  "the  liberal  and  practical  edu- 
cation of  the  children  of  the  industrial  classes  (and  in  America 
that  means  most  of  us)  for  the  several  pursuits  and  professions 
of  life,"  and  it  suggested  many  ways  and  means  whereby  "agricul- 
ture and  the  mechanic  arts,"  the  great  twin  agencies  in  production, 
might  likewise  be  agencies  in  an  educational  system,  and  that,  too, 
without  excluding  the  many  useful  existing  agencies  for  educa- 
tion. 

The  Morrill  act  of  1862  was  a  protest  and  a  proclamation. 
A  protest  against  the  narrowness  and  idiocy  and  baleful  tenden- 
cies of  the  existing  regime  in  college  education,  and  a  proclama- 
tion of  freedom  therefrom. 

I  say  Senator  Morrill  was  wiser  than  the  philosopher  or  the 
practical  man  of  his  day.  The  "practical"  man  thought  that  the 
system  should  confine  itself  to  the  teaching  of  processes  and  for- 
mulae and  recipes.  It  should  begin  with  the  commandments — the 
"Thou  shalts"  and  "Thou  shalt  nots"  of  agriculture.  Stress  was 
to  be  laid  upon  the  part  which  the  body  was  to  perform  in  agri- 
cultural work.  The  president  of  one  of  the  agricultural  colleges 
of  the  early  day  told  me  that  the  practice  in  his  college  was  to  find 
out,  when  a  new  boy  came,  what  he  could  do.  If  he  knew  how 
to  build  a  fence,  he  was  put  to  fence  building;  if  he  knew  how 
to  milk  cows,  then  he  was  set  to  milking  cows.  The  "practical" 
man  had  great  fear  of  science  study.  Not  that  he  wholly  es- 
chewed science;  on  the  contrary,  he  had  a  profound,  a  supersti- 
tious reverence  for  science.  He  always  spelled  it  -with  a  big 
"S" — if  he  could  spell.  He  approached  science  as  one  of  olden 
time  would  have  approached  the  oracle  or  the  witch's  cave. 


Higher  Agricultural  Education.  93 

Scientific  dicta  were  cherished  as  the  Knights  Hospitalers  cher- 
ished a  piece  of  the  wood  of  the  true  cross,  or  the  bones  of  a  saint. 
Should  ,the  deliverances  of  the  scientists  upon  occasion  conflict 
with  the  undeniable  facts  in  the  case,  then  he  was  simply  no  scien- 
tist at  all — a  false  prophet.  But  for  the  agricultural  student  to 
study  science,  that  was  quite  another  thing.  A  little  of  it  might 
not  hurt,  for  these  tremendous  words  had  a  new  and  strange  and 
wonder-working  sound,  as  though  they  were  words  to  conjure 
with,  but  too  much  of  science  might  bewitch  him,  and  then  he 
might  not  farm.  Our  "practical"  friend  had  a  profound  fear  of 
anything  that  did  not  smell  of  the  cow  stable,  and  an  insane  jeal- 
ousy of  any  subjects  which  could  not  be  described  as  agricultural, 
as  he  understood  it.  He  consented  to  the  inculcation  of  knowl- 
edge, such  as  the  scientist  and  practical  man  might  put  down  in 
the  form  of  facts  and  rules,  after  the  manner  of  the  almanac. 
Along  with  this  he  was  willing  that  the  student  might  have  any 
amount  of  bodily  training  which  might  be  deemed  necessary, 
provided  he  didn't  learn  too  much,  for  it  was  almost  a  tenet  in 
certain  quarters  that  the  student  should  be  kept  ignorant  enough 
so  that  he  would  be  compelled  to  farm,  and  thus  the  end  of  the 
system  be  attained.  His  premises  assumed  that  agriculture  is  a 
science,  that  is,  that  there  existed  an  accurate  and  complete  and 
systematic  body  of  knowledge  known  as  the  "science  of  agricul- 
ture," and  a  perfect  system  of  practice,  both  objective  entities  of 
which  the  student  might  become  possessed.  With  proper  appli- 
cation he  might  learn  them  both.  Now,  I  need  hardly  interpolate 
that  there  existed  then  no  such  fyody  of  knowledge  nor  any  such 
system  of  practice,  and  even  if  they  were  true,  for  today,  they 
would  not  be  for  tomorrow,  and  even  if  he  swallowed  the  one 
and  clothed  himself  with  the  other,  a  little  later  he  would  be  as 
helpless  as  ever.  One  of  the  most  serious  obstacles  with-  which 
agricultural  education  has  met  has  been  this  same  assumption 
on  the  part  of  the  public  that  there  exist  a  ready-made  and  per- 
fect science  and  an  art  of  agriculture  which  any  one  with  reason- 
able application  might  get  possession  of  for  his  own. 

The  educational  philosopher  of  the  day,  on  the  other  hand, 
did  not  have  a  very  much  clearer  or  more  adequate  view  of  the 
matter  than  the  "practical"  man.  Devoted  as  he  was  to  the  dis- 
covery of  a  philosophy  which  explains  and  sustains  the  existing 
literary  system,  he  listened  with  ill-disguised  intolerance  to  the 
plea  for  agricultural  education,  consenting  that  there  might  be  a 
need  for  instruction  in  agriculture,  and  agreeing  that  there  was 
a  remote  academic  connection  between  the  primary  sciences  and 
the  art  of  agriculture,  but  denying  in  his  heart  the  name  of 
"education"  to  this  instruction.  He  agreed  with  the  "practical" 
man  that  the  learning  of  agriculture  was  a  learning  of  processes 
and  formulae  and  recipes  and  practices.  He  likened  it  to  learning 


94  Lewis  and  Clark  Educational  Congress. 

a  trade,  and,  to  his  way  of  thinking,  the  learning  of  trades  was 
remote  from  education.  Agriculture  was  an  objective  thing  to 
whose  laws  and  practices  man  must  conform  himself.  The  man 
must  "Orientalize"  himself,  to  use  President  Wheeler's  phrase, 
and  adapt  himself  to  a  fixed  science  and  art.  Of  course,  in  so  far 
as  the  so-called  "agricultural  education"  wras  learning  to  farm,  it 
might  be  useful,  for  some  must  learn  to  plow  and  to  mow,  to  reap 
and  to  sow,  but  there  was  great  fear  that  the  plow  and  the  scythe 
and  the  reaping  hook  might  do  for  him  what  the  hoe  did  for  that 
poor  man  who  stands  over  yonder  in  the  famous  picture.  They 
lyingly  tell  us  that  the  hoe  is  the  author  of  that  stupid,  ox-like 
gaze,  that  low,  dull  brow,  that  heavy,  hopeless  body.  I  tell  you 
nay,  that  bright,  keen,  beautiful  weapon,  the  hoe,  mightier  than 
the  sword,  has  been  and  is  the  instrument  of  peace,  the  instru- 
ment of  plenty,  the  instrument  of  conquest  of  the  earth  by  man, 
and  it  is  rather  the  symbol  of  civilization  and  enlightenment  than 
of  intellectual  degeneracy  and  death.  Against  oppression  and  tyr- 
anny, against  ignorance  and  superstition  it  has  uplifted  man,  has 
exalted  him  infinitely  more  than  sword  and  crown  and  king.  But 
pardon  the  digression. 

The  educational  philosopher,  I  say,  agreed  with  the  "prac- 
tical" man  as  to  the  program  for  agricultural  instruction,  but 
denied  to  it  the  name  of  education.  "For  education,"  said  he,  "is 
a  thing  of  the  mind,  of  spirit,  and  not  of  body.  It  is  an  inner 
movement  wherein  the  mind  of  man  rises  and  expands  and  devel- 
ops strength  and  power.  The  mind  through  the  study  of  language 
and  logic  and  metaphysics  an<^  poetry  rises  above  the  gross  and 
sensual  to  the  contemplation  of  'pure  soul'  and  the  highest  life." 

Now,  the  new  education  had  little  room  for  "pure  soul"  to 
range  up  and  down  in,  and  there  is  little  wonder  that  some  appre- 
hension was  felt  lest  this  "instruction  in  agriculture,"  seemingly 
so  innocent,  might  not,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  prove  harmful  to  "real 
education."  Great  fear  came  upon  them  all  because  of  the  danger 
to  "pure  soul"  from  contact  with  earthly  things,  from  utilitarian- 
ism and  from  the  commercial  spirit — the  world,  the  flesh  and  the 
devil.  The  danger  from  using  the  common  things  of  nature 
about  us  in  our  educational  process  must  not  be  underestimated. 
If,  by  chance,  some  mind  had  pierced  the  veil  and  had  discovered 
nature's  laws  and  principles  and  had  understood  her  materials ;  if 
with  constructive  imagination  this  mind  had  constructed  a  Brook- 
lyn bridge,  so  that  that  which  in  the  perfection  of  truth  had  been 
bodied  forth  in  the  mind  of  its  creator  now  stands  before  our 
duller  eyes  as  an  objective  reality — "Ach,  mein  Gott,"  how  ter- 
rible an  example  of  utilitarianism  and  of  the  commercial  spirit  is 
this.  This  bridge  cost  money.  It  makes  money  for  somebody. 
Ah,  how  "pure  soul"  must  have  suffered  under  this  gross  com- 
mercialism. It  matters  not  that  under  the  old  regime  doctors 


Higher  Agricultural  Education.  95 

sawed  off  legs  and  administered  pills  for  money,  that  lawyers 
pleaded  for  fees,  that  preachers  preached  for  salaries,  and  teachers 
taught  that  they  might  earn  an  honest  penny  wherewith  to  buy 
bread  and  butter,  they  at  least  were  educated  under  the  "culture" 
regime,  and  no  narrow  commercialism  could  have  blighted  their 
innocent  souls.  Learning  paradigm  of  nouns  and  verbs  could  not 
commercialize  them ;  patiently  with  grammar  and  dictionary  trans- 
lating stupid  foreign  phrases  into  stupider  English  phrases  could 
not  do  it;  the  categories  of  logic  could  not  do  it;  the  philosophy 
of  Spinoza  or  Kant  could  not  do  it,  and  so,  happily,  they  escaped 
the  utilitarian  spirit.  But  if  the  human  mind  in  its  educational 
processes  shall  have  resorted  to  gross  nature,  shall  have  groveled 
in  the  dust  of  the  earth,  as  it  were,  the  commercialism  of  the  world 
will  cling  to  it  like  the  dust.  Against  such  opposition  did  the  new 
system  have  to  make  its  way.  But,  happily,  now  we  are  past  all 
this,  and  the  doleful  forebodings  of  the  educational  philosopher 
who  loyally  defended  the  existing  regime  ( I  hope  with  no  personal 
loss  by  reason  of  his  loyalty),  and  the  "practical"  man,  who  looked 
to  the  industry  rather  than  to  the  man  for  whom  the  industry 
exists,  have  been  swept  along  with  the  rest  of  us  until  here  we 
are  with  a  great  new  system  coming  in  on  the  high  ti'de,  and  we 
are  all  saying,  how  little  we  knew,  how  little  we  guessed  at  the 
truth  as  we  find  it.  The  fundamental  principles  of  the  agricultural 
or  industrial  movement  are  all  but  universally  admitted  now.  I 
call  it  the  agricultural  education  movement,  for  it  was  the  first 
Morrill  act  which  gave  force  and  vitality  to  the  movement,  and  the 
popular  word  "agricultural,"  representing  the  greatest  of  all  the 
productive  industries,  has  clung  to  the  entire  system.  It  was  this 
legislation  that  obtained  entrance  for  the  doctrine  to  many  of  /the 
great  universities.  I  verily  believe  it  has  been  the  chief  source  of 
that  virility  which  has  caused  these  institutions  to  rise  like  young 
giants  as  they  are,  rejoicing  in  their  new-found  strength.  It  was 
this,  the  greatest  piece  of  educational  statesmanship  of  the  last 
century,  that  introduced  into  college  work  the  mechanic  arts,  the 
engineering  courses,  mining  and  metallurgy,  the  applied  sciences, 
the  art  and  science  of  agriculture,  domestic  economy,  etc.,  etc.,  and 
it  was  this  that  gave  that  dignity  and  vitality  to  manual  training 
which  it  now  enjoys.  Right  here  I  wish  to  complain  of  the  effect 
of  certain  terminology.  One  of  the  commonest  phrases  standing 
for  a  multitude  of  things  in  the  modern  curriculum  is  "Manual 
Training."  It  stands  for  a  whole  conception  or  system  of  instruc- 
tion, as  we  have  heard  in  the  past  few  days.  But  the  phrase  is 
such  as  to  deceive  even  the  very  elect.  "Manual  Training" — that 
is,  "hand  training" — body  training — that  is  the  contrasting  thing 
with  "Mind"  training.  Now,  I  protest  against  this.  I  will  con- 
sent to  contrast  the  new  "hand"  training,  with  the  old  "mouth" 
training,  or  I  will  consent  to  the  contrast  of  the  new  "industrial" 


96  Lewis  and  Clark  Educational  Congress. 

training  with  the  old  "verbal"  training,  or  the  modern  "scientific" 
,  system,  with  the  old  exclusively  "literary"  regime.  But  I  will  not 
consent  to  any  phraseology  which  assumes  that  under  the  old  sys- 
tem it  was  "mind"  education,  and  under  the  new  it  was  "not  mind" 
training.  Even  so  great  a  friend  of  the  cause  of  manual  training 
as  our  good  Dr.  Leipziger  used  frequently  this  unfortunate  con- 
trast. He  spoke  of  "industrial"  education  as  contrasted  with  "in- 
tellectual" education,  "mind"  training  with  "body"  training.  There 
is  no  such  distinction.  The  old  is  the  "verbal"  system,  the  new  is 
the  realistic.  "Thinking"  and  "doing"  are  contrasted  too  strongly. 
All  conscious  "doing"  is  but  the  expression  of  mind.  Only  the 
imbecile  and  the  idiot  act  without  thought.  Some  of  the  assump- 
tions of  the  old  regime  were  perhaps  natural.  We  think  in  words 
(mainly).  They  are  our  chief  medium  of  communication. 
Through  words  we  gain  much  from  the  present  and  very  much 
from  the  past.  They  are  an  important  and  useful  means  of  educa- 
tion. But  how  foolish  we  were  to  think  of  the  verbal  system  as  the 
only  source,  the  only  medium.  How  blind  were  we  to  cling  to  the 
verbal  system,  and  the  literary  method,  when,  if  we  had  but  opened 
our  eyes,  we  should  have  seen  that  it  was  not  exclusively  valid, 
when  the  larger  part  of  our  working  material  had  been  gotten  in 
other  ways.  So  there  we're  words,  words,  words,  definitions, 
descriptions,  rules,  formulae,  dogmas,  bookfuls  of  alleged  scien- 
tific data,  mostly  false,  and  authority  and  authorities  without  end. 
It  was  learning — great  erudition — to  be  sure,  but  not  always  edu- 
cation. The  verbal  system  was  at  best  very  imperfect.  The 
"word"  is  but  a  symbol  after  all,  and  through  it  we  "see  as  through 
a  glass  darkly."  Under  the  new  system  we  "see  face  to  face." 
Then  we  studied  the  representatives  of  things,  now  the  things 
themselves.  Do  not  misunderstand  me.  In  defending  and  ex- 
plaining the  new  doctrine,  I  am  not  declaring  invalid  the  old  sys- 
tem, nor  even  the  more  or  less  imperfect  explanation  of  it.  I  be- 
lieve in  literary  education.  I  believe  in  idealism.  And  I  regret 
the  imperfect  vision  that  fails  to  see  the  idealism  in  the  "practical" 
subjects  of  the  curriculum  which  are  so  lightly  sneered  at.  The 
boy  does  not  strike  the  ax  twice  in  the  same  place  without  the 
intervention — nay,  the  directing  and  controlling  power — of  mind. 
The  reaction  of  every  such  act,  so  directed,  upon  the  mind  is  im- 
mediate and  vital.  Nothing  compares  in  efficacy  with  this  kind  of 
reaction.  Under  it  the  mind  rises  and  expands  and  develops 
strength  and  facility  as  our  educational  philosopher  required  in 
his  ideal  system  of  education.  It  is  absurd  to  require  all  the  activ- 
ities of  man  to  be  translated  into  words  before  they  can  be  used  as 
mental  pabulum.  "Education  is  a  matter  of  mind?"  "To  be  sure, 
it  is  a  matter  of  mind."  "It  consists  in  subjective  changes?"  "Cer- 
tainly.", The  old  Greek  poet  was  right.  "Mind  it  seeth ;  Mind  it 
heareth;  all  else  is  deaf  and  blind."  But  you  who  have  labored 


Higher  Agricultural  Education.  97 

so  assiduously  to  separate  the  consideration  of  the  human  mind 
from  the  human  body  must  not  forget  that  when  you  stand  before 
the  human  eye,  the  mind  is  there;  and  when  you  speak  into  the 
human  ear,  lo,  it  is  there.  When  the  hand  consciously  touches 
you,  or  touches  any  other  thing,  animate  or  inanimate,  there  in 
the  finger  tips  stands  the  mind.  It  reveals  itself  to  you  in  the 
joyous  or  sad  countenance,  in  the  brow  lit  with  high  resolve,  or 
pale  with  abject  fear,  in  glistening  eye  and  trembling  lip,  in  shouts 
of  triumph  or  cries  of  despair.  So,  too,  through  these  same  chan- 
nels by  which  it  reveals  itself,  expresses  itself,  it  receives  into  its 
inner  soul  all  that  may  come  to  it,  and  it  digests  and  assimilates 
what  it  can,  growing  in  size  and  strength  and  activity  thereby. 
It  is  thus  that  play  educates,  thus  work  educates,  thus  all  our 
social  activities  have  been,  are,  and  always  will  be  the  chief  in- 
strumentalities in  the  education  of  the  race.  These  so-called  prac- 
tical subjects  then  are  mind  trainers — every  one  of  them.  The 
laboratory  method — the  method  of  handling  things — weighing, 
measuring,  analyzing,  combining,  is  a  mind  training  method. 
Agricultural  education  is  education — genuine,  real,  education — 
producing  mind  changes,  a  changed  being,  equipped  witji  new 
and  useful  instruments  for  doing  things,  knowing  how  to  go 
at  it,  thinking  perforce,  and  reasoning,  idealizing,  if  you  please, 
and  as  much  as  you  please.  The  material  with  which  the  mind 
works  is  somewhat  different  from  the  old  material.  It  cannot 
do,  to  be  sure,  without  the  same  old  instruments — it  must  read, 
have  language  and  books,  the  science  of  numbers  and  form,  etc. — 
but  it  has  added  new  and  better  instruments  for  the  purpose  of 
mind  growth  along  certain  directions,  namely,  that  of  the  life 
which  the  student  is  to  lead. 

But  I  have  gone  so  far  forth  as  to  leave  little  time  for  even 
a  glimpse  at  what  has  taken  place  and  the  present  status  of  indus- 
trial education.  Briefly,  it  was  the  rise  of  modern  science  and 
the  scientific  method  that  ushered  in  the  new  era.  Genuine 
science  stood  a  long  time  knocking  at  the  door  while  the 
educator  refused  admission.  I  wish  we  had  the  word  "science- 
taster"  as  we  have  the  word  "poetaster,"  and  then  would  I  say 
that  the  science-taster  first  gained  admission  to  educational  cir- 
cles. It  was  the  man  who  had  some  knowledge  of  systematic 
science,  who  revelled  in  the  rolling  nomenclature  and  thought  it 
the  real  thing,  who  loved  the  romantic  story  that  science  could 
tell,  and  who  startled  the  eyes  and  the  ears  of  the  groundlings 
with  the  more  spectacular  phenomena  of  the  science.  Later  the 
educator  became  more  friendly  to  science,  if  so  be  it  was  only 
"pure."  If  it  dealt  with  abstractions  and  aimed  at  no  useful  end 
it  might  not  engender  the  commercial  spirit  and  so  corrupt  the* 
youth.  A  school  of  scientists  arose  "who  were  of  purer  eyes 
than  to  behold  iniquity,"  and  these  sought  for  the  truths  which  no 


98  Lewis  and  Clark  Educational  Congress. 

one  might  prostitute  to  a  commercial  end.  But  there  came  a 
day  when  some  dared  to  say,  "If,  peradventure,  a  useful  truth 
should  emerge  you  would  not  condemn  Sodom  for  one's  sake." 
And  the  educator  said,  "I  will  not  condemn  it  for  one's  sake." 
And  then  bolder  men  arose  and  said,  "I  will  seek  for  useful 
truth.  I  have  equipped  myself  with  this  science  as  a  tool,  an 
instrument ;  I  know  its  elementary  laws ;  I  have  the  paraphernalia 
with  which  to  work,  and  I  will  seek  for  truth  that  may  bring  bet- 
terment to  mankind.  I  am  here  to  solve  such  problems,  useful  to 
our  common  human  welfare,  as  this  science  is  capable  of  solving." 
With  this  stage  of  progress  came  one  of  the  most  remarkable  and 
important  pedagogical  changes  which  we  in  our  lives  have  wit- 
nessed, namely,  the  entering  upon  what  I  would  call  the  ''instru- 
mental" stage  of  the  subjects  in  the  curriculum.  All  the  while 
the  new  scientific  method  had  been  reacting  upon  the  older  sub- 
jects of  the  curriculum.  History  was  revolutionized,  political 
economy  could  hardly  be  recognized  in  its  new  form,  literature 
felt  the  influence  of  the  new  method,  language  study  was  changed 
in  purpose  and  uses.  Strangely  enough,  some  began  to  study 
languages  in  order  to  use  them.  The  several  sciences  in  every 
stage  became  "instrumental"  to  an  ulterior  end.  They  had  been 
studied  before  as  ends  in  themselves.  Chemistry  for  chemistry's 
sake,  botany  for  the  sake  of  botany.  Now  they  were  studied 
to  be  used  as  tools  for  doing  things  with.  Every  subject  began 
to  serve  as  a  means  to  an  ulterior  end.  This  is  almost  the  most 
striking  feature  of  the  existing  regime.  But  a  curious  result 
now  appears  from  the  setting  of  concrete  problems  and  utilitarian 
ends  for  the  scientist — and,  for  that  matter,  a  similar  result  has 
come  to  the  historian,  the  sociologist,  the  philologist,  from  the 
pursuit  of  the  same  method.  The  result  is  the  story  of  the  Holy 
Grail  repeated.  The  knight-errant  goes  forth  to  seek  in  all  climes 
for  the  Holy  Grail;  he  finds  it  at  his  own  doorway  in  the  hands 
of  the  humble  and  despised.  After  our  knight-errant  quest 
for  pure  science,  abstract  truth,  for  freedom  from  contamination 
with  earthly  things,  so  the  pure  truth  may  be  the  guerdon  of 
the  search,  lo,  it  appears,  that  in  seeking  through  these  lowly 
things  about  us,  lowly  ends,  suddenly  there  emerges  with  startling 
distinctness  before  our  vision  the  great  fundamental  principles  of 
science.  A  man  not  far  from  here  sought  for  a  winter  wheat  that 
had  stiff  straw  so  that  it  would  not  fall  down,  close  sheathed  so 
that  it  would  not  shatter,  and  good  milling  qualities.  He  found 
it  not  in  the  Orient  or  the  Occident.  Then  he  said :  Go  to,  let  us 
create  it.  So  he  took  grains,  each  having  some  of  the  desired 
qualities,  and  began  a  series  of  breeding  experiments  in  which 
hundreds  of  new  varieties  were  produced.  What  was  his  aston- 
'ishment,  long  ere  the  desired  end  was  accomplished,  to  see  stand- 
ing out  before  his  eyes,  certain  universal  principles  of  the  heredi- 


Higher  Agricultural  Education.  99 

tary  transmission  of  characteristics.  It  is  thus  always.  The 
ascetic  sought  a  holy  life.  Not  all  the  scourgings  and  fastings 
and  hermitage  could  bring  perfection.  The  simple  peasant 
mother  bore  children  and  trained  them  to  obedience  and  thrift. 
She  nursed  them  in  sickness  and  encouraged  them  in  health. 
She  fed  the  poor  and  needy.  She  was  a  kind  neighbor,  a  true 
wife,  a  good  mother.  She  died  a  saint.  I  do  not  fear  contradic- 
tion when  I  say  that  to  solve  the  simple  agricultural  problem 
arising  in  the  orchard,  the  garden,  the  field,  the  forest  and  the 
range,  demands  the  highest  kind  of  knowledge,  the  largest  skill 
in  technique  and  the  broadest  range  of  mental  power.  Anything 
less  than  this  in  the  service  would  be  suicidal.  I  do  not  hesitate 
to  say  that  through  these  researches  lies  the  largest  possibility 
of  the  advancement  of  pure  science.  I  do  not  hesitate  to  say 
further  that  of  original  scientific  investigation  today  in  botany, 
zoology,  entomology,  bacteriology,  chemistry,  the  agricultural 
experiment  stations  and  the  colleges  of  which  they  are  a  part,  to- 
gether with  the  Department  of  Agriculture,  are  doing  tenfold  as 
much  as  all  other  scientific  men  combined  in  this  country.  I 
could  say  almost  as  much  in  the  realm  of  physics  and  mechanics 
if  I  were  to  include  with  the  colleges  their  own  product. 

I  intimated  awhile  ago  that  so  far  from  there  being  a  large 
and  well  developed  body  of  knowledge  which  could  be  called 
the  science  of  agriculture  at  the  outset,  there  was  nothing  of 
the  kind.  The  data  had  to  be  gathered,  and  there  were  none 
capable  of  gathering  it.  Great  dissatisfaction  arose.  The  "prac- 
tical" man  was  disgusted,  and  there  were  charges  and  counter- 
charges of  bad  faith.  Not  only  the  scientific  data  had  to  be  gotten 
and  a  body  of  scientists  capable  of  gathering  and  using  it  had 
to  be  created,  but  the  whole  pedagogy  of  the  subject  had  to  be 
invented.  You  may  think  that  a  little  matter.  But  in  this  day 
when  men  are  accustomed  to  say  that  one  subject  for  the  cur- 
riculum is  just  as  good  as  another,  take  something  which  has 
not  been  used  heretofore  for  that  purpose  and  cast  it  into  acad- 
emic form  and  devise  pedagogical  methods  for  its  profitable  use, 
and  you  will  then  understand  what  it  means  to  do  this.  To  be 
ready  to  meet  a  class  profitably  in  the  classroom,  and  laboratory 
five  days  in  the  week,  four  weeks  in  the  month,  ten  months  in  the 
year,  means  much,  and  we  now  wonder  at  the  amazing  rapidity 
with  which  a  practical  programme  has  been  evolved.  Little  won- 
der that  in  earlier  days  the  students  were  few.  To  give  no  other 
explanation,  there  was  little  in  the  course  that  the  student  could 
use  with  profit.  But  today  there  is  a  well-considered  and  adequate 
programme.  The  pedagogy  of  the  subject  is  in  a  very  satisfactory 
condition.  I  have  seen  soil  studies  adapted  to  the  simplest  ele- 
mentary stages  of  education,  and  to  the  most  advanced  investiga- 
tions which  were  and  are  as  beautiful  illustrations  of  the  scientific 


100  Lewis  and  Clark  Educational  Congress. 

method  and  scientific  training  as  I  have  ever  seen,  and  far  better 
than  many  of  the  so-called  sciences  in  the  older  curriculum.  There 
is  an  army  of  the  most  skillful  investigators  of  America,  enthusi- 
astically conquering  the  realms  of  agricultural  science  where  a 
quarter  of  a  century  ago  there  was  scarcely  a  professor  of  agri- 
culture worthy  of  the  name  in  America.  The  universities  and 
colleges  have  chairs  filled  by  able  men,  the  very  name  of  which 
will  sound  new  and  strange  to  many  of  you.  What  would  you 
think  of  a  professor  of  agronomy?  There  are  many  such  in  our 
largest  colleges  and  universities.  The  differentiation  of  subjects 
is  such  that  it  requires  a  whole  corps  of  men  to  teach  the  differ- 
ent departments  of  agriculture  proper. 

The  growth  of  the  agricultural  colleges  has  not  taken  place 
without  difficulty.  There  were  those  who  were  willing  to  prosti- 
tute their  trusts  for  ulterior  ends.  Others  were  helpless  by  rea- 
son of  their  incompetency.  It  required  creative  talent  in  its 
service,  and  that  is  rare.  It  required  time,  and  the  public  is  im- 
patient. It  required  students,  and  these  had  to  be  lured  from  the 
farm  and  the  shop,  ill  prepared  and  with  little  desire  on  their 
part,  and  with  a  provision  for  their  wants  that  gave  little  promise 
of  satisfaction.  The  old  educational  dogmas  dominated  the 
farm  as  well  as  the  city,  and  even  to  a  greater  extent  than  it  did 
the  city.  Many  mistakes  were  made.  One  of  the  greatest  was  due 
to  the  low  and  inadequate  conception  of  the  movement.  A  cheap 
low  curriculum  was  established  in  many  places.  The  objective 
theory  was  accepted  by  the  college  as  well  as  by  the  public.-  A 
half-baked  product  was  turned  out,  helpless  among  educated  men, 
and  not  at  home  among  those  from  whose  ranks  he  came.  There 
was,  and  is  yet,  the  necessity  without  doubt  of  connecting  up  with 
the  rural  school  and  the  rural  community.  But  this  did  not  neces- 
sitate the  conversion  of  the  college  into  a  hybrid  institution  in- 
capable of  useful  accomplishment.  The  move  is  inevitably  from 
above  downward,  and  the  top  should  have  been  high  enough. 
The  college  should  have  been,  and  should  be.  all  that  the  name 
implies,  and  ordinary  means  of  adjustment  can  be  found  for 
bridging  the  chasm  between  it  and  the  elementary  school. 

A  word  as  to  the  subjectiveness  of  agricultural  education. 
The  student  does  not  learn  empirically  a  vast  accumulation  of 
appropriate  facts.  Rather  does  he  get  a  new  attitude  toward  na- 
ture about  him.  He  comes  to  believe  that  there  is  a  rational 
explanation  for  all  phenomena,  a  rational  solution  for  all  prob- 
lems. He  learns  the  method  of  solving  problems,  the  scientific 
method.  He  applies  mind  to  the  manipulation  of  matter — with 
the  usual  results.  We  are  in  the  stage  where  we  assert  that  it  is 
our  business  to  educate  men,  not  simply  to  make  farmers.  Educate 
men  rightly  by  means  of  an  agricultural  curriculum  and  the  rest 
will  take  care  of  itself.  People  are  going  to  do  what  they  econom- 


Higher  Agricultural  Education.  101 

ically  must,  and  the  method  of  making  a  living  is  going  to  take 
care  of  itself  anyway.  Economic  considerations  are  going  to- 
control  in  the  matter  of  occupations.  What  we  propose  to  do  is 
this :  Out  of  the  broad  modern  curriculum  we  are  going  to  select 
the  agricultural  courses.  These  will  include  the  primary  sciences, 
of  course,  but  the  problems  set  in  their  study  will  be  economic. 
Plant  production,  that  is  to  say,  the  study  of  the  anatomy  and 
physiology  of  the  plant  and  the  adaptation  of  its  environment  to- 
ri and  the  study  of  that  environment — soil,  light,  heat  and  mois- 
ture— animal  production  and  farm  management  will  furnish  the 
backbone  of  the  course.  I  undertake  to  say  that  under  such  a 
curriculum  properly  balanced  with  that  of  the  literary  type 
just  as  satisfactory  results  will  be  obtained  as  under  any  other,, 
whether  for  practical  or  for  culture  purposes,  as  under,  an£  Cur- 
riculum for  higher  education  now  offered.  It  1*5  admitted  that 
the  mind's  efficiency  is  greatest  along  thet  lines  of-Mtfc  training) j 
The  activities  of  a  mind  educated  under  such  a  regime  will  find' 
their  greatest  opportunity  in  agricultural  production.  One  ob- 
stacle of  old  was  the  little  demand  for  services  of  this  kind  at 
remunerative  prices.  Agriculture  is  a  capitalistic  enterprise,  and. 
few  trained  men  had  aught  but  their  services  to  sell  in  the  market. 
But  it  is  growing  different  now.  I  predict  that  high  service  will 
secure  a  high  reward  here  as  elsewhere.  I  know  a  graduate  of 
our  own  college  only  four  years  out  of  college  who  receives  a 
higher  compensation  for  his  services  alone  in  a  purely  agricultural 
enterprise  than  does  the  president  of  the  college  from  which  he 
was  graduated. 

There  is,  then,  no  doubt  that  the  agricultural  college  move- 
ment which  took  legislative  form  in  1862  included  the  entire 
sphere  of  industrial  education,  and  that  it  has  been  responsible 
for  shifting  the  attitude  of  science  itself  as  well  as  of  broadening 
and  rendering  more  adequate  our  educational  philosophy.  There 
is  no  doubt  that  agricultural  education  means  the  changing  and 
developing  of  the  human  mind  by  means  of  new  instrumentalities 
and  along  new  lines,  giving  to  it  a  new  attitude  toward  the  uni- 
verse and  equipping  it  with  new  instruments  for  the  struggle 
with  its  environment.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  a  valid  system 
of  education  has  been  evolved  and  an  excellent  program  devised 
for  the  work.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  this  is  the  forerunner 
of  vast  sociological  changes,  that  the  field  for  educated  men  has 
been  greatly  extended,  that  the  great  productive  realm  is  to  feel 
the  influence  of  mind  in  its  most  active  and  efficient  form,  and  that 
as  a  result  of  this  the  movement  has  great  humanitarian  aspects  of 
which  we  have  scarcely  dreamed.  If  we  were  far  enough  away  to- 
day to  get  the  perspective  we  would  see  that  we  are  already  in  the 
midst  of  a  great  agricultural  revolution  springing  directly  from  the 
new  education.  If  the  movement  increased  production  alone  it 


102  Lewis  and  Clark  Educational  Congress. 

would  affect  every  nation,  civilized  and  uncivilized,  on  earth.  For 
every  additional  mouthful  of  bread,  every  additional  stitch  of 
clothing,  every  added  necessity  of  life  distributes  itself  automati- 
cally to  the  ends  of  the  earth.  And  if  we  forget  the  effect  of  the 
new  system  on  the  men  through  whom  these  changes  are  wrought, 
yet  we  know  that  the  economic  betterment  of  other  men  through- 
out the  world  in  turn  reacts  on  their  mental,  moral  and  spiritual 
possibilities.  Thus  I  say  advisedly  that  the  agricultural  college 
movement  was  the  greatest  piece  of  statesmanship  of  the  past 
century. 

EDUCATION   IN   REFERENCE  TO   OUR  FUTURE   IN- 
DUSTRIAL AND  COMMERCIAL  DEVELOPMENT. 
By  HOWARD  J.  ROGERS. 

.The  title  pf  this  paper  implies  the  possibility  of  a  change  in 
school  policy  and  methods.  It  is  exactly  the  problem  we  have  to 
face.  There  is  no  reason  why  its  imminence  should  worry  or 
annoy  us,  for  it  is  the  principle  upon  which  the  evolution  and 
progress  of  men  and  of  nations  rest.  It  has  seemed  distressing 
to  many  that  just  as  we  had  comfortably  finished  "correlating" 
the  work  of  the  various  grades,  and  when  we  were  on  the  verge 
of  "enriching"  sufficiently  the  elementary  and  secondary  years, — 
so  that  a  well-earned  peace  and  unity  might  settle  over  the  land 
and  soothe  us  in  their  dreamy  and  contented  embrace,  a  spectre 
should  appear  to  disturb  our  rest  and  renew  our  discussions.  But 
it  is  probably  pur  salvation,  for  the  man  who  rests  and  the  nation 
which  rests  falls  out  of  step  with  the  world's  advance.  Unceasing 
work  is  the  price  of  progress,  and  only  those  rest  who  die  or  sleep. 
This  spirit  of  educational  unrest  seems  to  demand  of  us  the  reason 
for  two  main  interrogations.  The  first  we  should  put  something 
like  this :  In  view  of  the  truth  that  9G  out  of  every  100  children 
in  the  elementary  grades  do  not  enter  the  high  school,  and  that 
three  out  of  every  four  children  in  the  high  schools  do  not  go  to  a 
college,  technical  or  professional  school,  and  that  only  for  the  re- 
maining one  is  there  an  opportunity  to  be  fitted  at  public  expense 
for  his  work  in  life,  what  should  be  done  for  the  other  ninety- 
nine  to  give  them  a  fair  training  for  their  future  occupations  ? 

The  second  question  is  complemental  to  this  and  comes  from 
the  counting-room,  the  workshop,  the  factory  and  the  field.  Can 
you  not  send  us  boys  and  girls  from  the  elementary  grades,  or 
from  the  high  schools,  with  some  idea  of  practice,  and  with  a 
training  to  make  them  more  efficient  for  work  and  lessen  their 
period  of  instruction  by  us  ?  Both  are  asked  in  the  seriousness  of 
long  denial,  and  both  must  be  fairly  and  satisfactorily  answered. 
With  the  predilection  of  a  Yankee  for  answering  a  question  by 
asking  one,  Americans  will  say,  what  ought  we  to  do,  and  what 


Future  Industrial  and  Commercial  Development.         103 

• 

can  we  do  ?    Your  consideration  of  these  points  is  the  task  of  the 
morning. 

I  have  never  seen  a  good  definition  of  education  in  its  rela- 
tions to  the  state.  Philosophers  have  rarely  agreed  upon  one  since 
the  days  of  Grecian  polemics,  but  it  is  axiomatic  that  the  justifica- 
tion for  the  expenditure  of  public  money  on  education  is  to  in- 
crease efficient  service  for  the  state.  The  divisions  of  opinion 
which  have  characterized  the  policies  of  nations  and  the  beliefs  of 
men  have  been  threefold :  First,  the  kind  of  education ;  second, 
the  extent  to  which  it  should  be  carried ;  third,  the  classes  of  peo- 
ple to  which  it  should  be  accorded.  Educational  controversies  in 
the  United  States  have  centered  about  the  first  two  points.  There 
never  could  be  under  our  constitution  any  divergence  of  opinion 
on  the  last. 

There  exists  also  on  the  part  of  an  educational  system  a  recip- 
rocal responsibility  to  the  state  which  requires  that  the  system 
produce  the  variety  of  talent  demanded  for  the  progressive  needs 
of  the  state,  and  of  the  highest  grade  of  efficiency  which  a  trained 
and  alert  teaching  service  can  secure.  The  conditions  in  this  coun- 
try have  tended  to  create  an  elastic  and  responsive  system  of  ed- 
ucation. Since  colonial  days  it  has  been  of  irregular  growth,  but 
rapid  and  entirely  unhampered.  Till  late  in  the  first  half  of  the 
nineteenth  century  there  was  no  uniformity  in  school-room  meth- 
ods or  administrative  details,  but  in  each  part  of  the  country  in- 
struction of  children  was  governed  by  the  customs  and  traditions, 
which  were  derived  from  the  early  settlers  of  that  section. 
Through  the  storm  and  stress  of  colonial  days,  however,  educa- 
tion had  come  to  be  regarded  as  a  fundamental  principle  in  the 
development  of  the  new  country,  and  the  same  theory  which  con- 
trolled the  early  development  of  the  states  and  the  nation  may  be 
said  to  have  applied  with  equal  strength  to  the  growth  of  the 
schools,  namely,  equal  opportunities  for  all  citizens  and  freedom 
from  tradition  and  precedent.  Whether  the  schools  had  their 
origin  in  New  England,  where  Puritan  English  ideas  predomi- 
nated, or  in  New  York,  where  the  liberal  spirit  of  the  Dutch 
toward  popular  education  influenced  their  growth,  or  in  the  South,, 
where  the  influence  of  wealthy  landholders,  with  continental  ideas 
of  education  for  the  few,  had  been  less  favorable  to  popular  educa- 
tion, they  rapidly  acquired  an  individuality  and  rugged  power 
which  led  to  an  incredibly  swift  development  toward  free  public 
instruction  when  the  appointed  day  arrived.  The  strength 
of  the  American  school  system  has  been  its  unquestioned  prece- 
dence in  the  minds  of  the  people  over  all  other  matters  of  admin- 
istration, its  careful  nurture  on  independent  bases,  and  the  vigor 
with  which  the  different  forms  have  grown  into  a  related  system. 

The  characteristics  which  have  marked  our  educational 
growth  in  the  past  are  the  strongest  indication  that  it  will  meet 


104  Lewis  and  Clark  Educational  Congress. 

• 

the  demands  of  the  future,  viz :  freedom  from  the  trammels  of 
creed  and  precedent,  and  a  responsive  adjustment  to  the  material 
needs  of  the  country.  Our  own  educational  history  furnishes  the 
most  striking  proof  of  this  statement.  From  1830  to  1860  a 
mighty  force,  which  affected  not  only  the  public  support  of  educa- 
tion, but  also  the  character  of  the  instruction  itself,  was  the  in- 
tense industrial  life  and  the  development  of  unsettled  territory 
which  followed  the  applications  of  steam  and  electricity.  For  200 
years  after  the  foundation  of  Harvard,  higher  education  had  fol- 
lowed the  time-honored  curriculum,  and  so  long  as  it  was  ex- 
pected to  turn  out  only  lawyers,  doctors  and  preachers  it  sufficed. 
But  an  age  of  material  development  was  at  hand,  which  has 
already  run  over  half  a  century,  and  which  reads  like  the  tale  of 
a  magician.  The  population  of  the  country  has  increased  from 
ten  to  eighty  millions  of  people ;  the  broad  acres  of  an  entire  con- 
tinent have  been  brought  under  subjugation;  systems  of  transpor- 
tation bind  every  part  of  this  great  country  in  close  relation ;  New 
York  and  Portland  are  no  farther  apart  than  were  Boston  and 
Philadelphia  at  the  beginning  of  the  period;  the  inventions  of 
science  in  every  field  of  human  endeavor  are  a  catalogue  of  won- 
ders; the  growth  of  applied  arts  to  public  service  has  become  a 
prime  consideration.  The  genius  of  man  seems  to  have  sprung 
forth  fully  armed  to  meet  the  call  of  opportunity.  All  this  has 
demanded  a  variety  of  talent  and  a  wealth  of  special  training 
which  the  old  institutions  could  not  furnish,  and  higher  education 
has  been  constantly  undergoing  changes  to  meet  the  demands 
of  commerce  and  industry.  Schools  of  technology  and  applied 
science  have  sprung  up  by  scores ;  and  the  curriculums  of  the 
older  universities  have  been  expanded  to  furnish  the  required 
training.  The  percentage  of  students  in  higher  educational  insti- 
tutions has  increased  at  a  ratio  double  the  increase  of  the  popula- 
tion. To  put  the  matter  briefly,  it  may  be  said  that  the  colleges, 
universities,  professional  and  technical  schools,  whether  state  sup- 
ported or  privately  maintained,  have  put  themselves  in  closer  rela- 
tions with  the  people,  and  are  aiming  to  give  the  highest  degree 
of  practical  training  to  their  graduates. 

This  marvelous  growth  in  material  achievement  and  the 
correlative  growth  of  our  educational  system  are  the  distinctive 
marks  of  the  nineteenth  century.  Changes  quite  as  important  are 
now  taking  place  in  the  industrial  and  commercial  world  at  the 
beginning  of  the  twentieth  century.  They  are  the  changes  due 
to  the  minute  applications  of  science  to  the  industries,  of  the  prac- 
tical annihilation  of  time  and  space  in  the  business  world,  the 
subdivision  of  labor,  and  the  more  careful  observance  of  the  prin- 
ciples of  economy,  particularly  in  checking  waste  and  the  prodigal 
use  of  raw  material  and  natural  resources. 


Future  Industrial  and  Commercial  Development.         105 

A  study  of  the  commercial  reports  and  reviews  for  the  past 
five  years  taxes  our  credulity  and  our  powers  of  comprehension. 
Royalty  forms  partnership  with  American  enterprise  and  develops 
the  heart  of  Africa ;  combinations  of  capital  and  labor  render  pos- 
sible operations  of  an  incredible  magnitude  and  forestall  failure; 
billion-dollar  combinations  are  the  rule  instead  of  the  million; 
continents  are  substituted  •  for  countries  as  fields  of  activity.  It 
almost  confuses  our  standards  of  reasoning  and  forces  a  read- 
justment of  our  mental  perspective.  There  are  no  longer  geo- 
graphical boundaries  to  limit  the  operation  of  capital,  and  while 
political  divisions  will  continue  to  exist,  and  various  forms  of 
government  be  administered  for  all  time  to  come,  the  limitations 
imposed  upon  both  by  the  identity  of  commercial  interests  will 
go  far  to  secure  the  same  international  unity  and  harmony  in  poli- 
tics as  now  exists  in  business.  International  combinations  of 
capital,  and  co-ordinate  commercial  interests  are  the  greatest  peace 
factors  of  the  present  age.  There  is  no  millenium  foretold  in 
these  words,  and  no  white-winged  dove  of  peace  will  hover  over 
the  universe  till  human  nature  has  undergone  a  higher  evolution 
than  the  last  three  thousand  years  have  seen ;  but  the  control  of 
one  human  passion  by  a  paramount  one  is  characteristic  of  man, 
and  similar  interests,  a  common  liability,  and  a  mutual  oppor- 
tunity for  gain  existing  between  people  of  different  nationalities, 
will  hold  long  in  check  animosities  which  might  tend  to  destruc- 
tive war. 

Standards  of  trade  and  exchange  are  formulating  in  inter- 
national terms  and  units,  and  it  is  no  longer  enough  for  a  manu- 
facturer to  know  that  he  has  a  good  product  sufficient  for  the 
needs  of  his  locality,  his  state,  or  even  his  country ;  he  must  know 
what  the  foreign  manufacturer  of  similar  articles  is  doing,  what 
are  the  points  for  or  against  his  own  goods,  and  how  they  can  be 
adapted  to  the  wants  of  all  consumers,  or  he  will  awake  to  find  his 
markets  disappearing  and  his  credit  gone.  Nations  have  grown 
large  in  the  past  twenty  years,  but  not  so  rapidly  as  the  world 
has  grown  small.  Where  a  few  years  ago  it  was  deemed  interna- 
tional competition  for  the  products  of  America  to  sell  against 
those  of  England,  Germany  and  France  on  the  soil  of  these 
respective  countries,  and  vice  versa,  it  is  now  an  incident,  and 
competition  means  the  clash  of  these  goods  with  those  of  other 
nations  for  the  trade  of  Africa,  of  India,  and  the  Far  East.  As 
a  consequence  of  this  expansion  of  industry  and  reaching  out  for 
markets,  successful  competition  means  a  thorough  knowledge  of 
all  technical  details,  constant  outlook  for  improved  processes, 
economy  in  handling  and  transportation,  and  an  appreciative 
knowledge  of  the  wants,  the  languages,  and  the  prejudices  of  the 
consumers. 


106  Lewis  and  Clark  Educational  Congress. 

The  result  of  this  growth  of  trade,  and  the  responsibilities 
which  it  involves,  implies  clearly  the  great  need  of  trained  and 
^expert  service  in  every  ramification  of  an  intricate  and  complex 
commercial  problem.  Not  only  business  relations,  but  the  poli- 
cies of  nations  are  involved,  for  the  diplomacy  of  the  present  age 
is  more  concerned  with  the  control  of  markets  than  the  acquisi- 
tion of  territory.  It  is  the  man  of  commerce  who  rules  the  world 
today  and  dictates  the  action  of  governments.  The  man  of  war 
is  the  servant,  not  the  master,  .and  is  held  for  use  only  in  remote 
contingencies.  And,  after  all,  what  is  the  work  of  a  government 
but  the  carrying  on  of  business  on  a  large  scale  ?  Read  the  mes- 
sages of  the  presidents  for  years  back,  and  they  deal  almost 
exclusively  with  the  problems  of  commerce  and  industry — the 
money  standard,  currency,  banking,  tariff,  interstate  commerce, 
rebates,  trusts,  taxation,  canals,  irrigation,  forestry,  etc.  The 
underlying  principles  are  the  same.  What  is  true  of  export  and 
foreign  trade  is  equally  true  of  domestic  and  retail  trade,  which 
-are  closely  involved  with  each  other,  and  a  situation  is  at  hand 
where  all  slack  in  production  must  be  taken  up  and  no  leeway 
allowed  for  inefficiency  in  service,  or  waste  in  material  and 
methods. 

In  the  United  States  the  commercial  and  industrial  pursuits 
are  now  recognizing  this  necessity  of  a  closer  economy.  The 
average  American  business  man  has  succeeded  in  spite  of  his 
methods,  and  sometimes  in  spite  of  himself.  This  country  has 
been  so  rich  in  its  resources,  so  absolutely  prodigal  in  its  oppor- 
tunities, that  the  necessity  of  conserving  and  closely  articulating 
the  processes  which  control  the  raw  material,  the  product,  and  its 
disposition,  has  never  been  keenly  felt.  This  is  not  to  be  wondered 
at.  Our  agricultural  lands,  rich  with  the  accumulated  fertility 
of  countless  ages  have  yielded  so  bounteously  that  all  minor  sav- 
ings have  been  neglected ;  our  forests,  vast  and  seemingly  illimit- 
able, have  furnished  to  unscientific  and  eager  hands  a  wealth  of 
material  without  regard  to  the  awful  waste ;  our  mines  have  given 
up  their  obvious,  treasures  to  the  first  frenzied  rush  of  seekers, 
and  hold  still  in  the  earth  that  was  trampled  under  foot,  fortunes 
for  the  scientific  worker ;  our  transportation  lines  have  been  laid 
hurriedly  and  with  a  disregard  for  permanence  and  economy 
which  is  compelling  their  rebuilding  and  reorganization;  our 
trades  and  industries  have  been  affected  by  this  same  spirit  and 
policy,  and  have  almost  unconsciously  been  carried  on  with  waste, 
with  extravagance,  and  with  some  criminal  negligence ;  our  pro- 
fessional and  scholastic  methods  have  not  escaped  the  charge  of 
superficiality  and  lack  of  true  scientific  spirit;  in  short,  in  every 
sphere  of  industry,  permanence  and  scientific  economy  have  been 
sacrificed  to  expedience  and  haste.  Our  country  has  presented  the 
•curious  anomaly  of  men  in  every  trade,  business,  and  profession 


Future  Industrial  and  Commercial  Development.         107 

pursuing  their  vocation  only  just  so  long  as  nothing  more  lucrative 
came  to  view.  True,  we  have  grown  rich  and  powerful.  We 
could  not  help  it.  Our  natural  resources  can  discount  our  methods  * 
and  still  make  our  enterprises  wonderfully  profitable.  When  the 
seeker  of  fortune  pitches  his  camp  by  the  light  of  the  stars  and 
wakes  in  the  morning  to  find  that  he  has  slept  upon  a  gold  mine, 
it  does  not  tend  to  economy  in  development  or  care  in  method; 
more  than  that,  it  brings  discontent  to  every  person  who  hears  of 
it.  The  development  of  our  country  reads  like  a  book  of  wonder- 
tales,  which  is  undoubtedly  the  reason  why  many  of  our  methods 
are  as  inexplicable.  Nor  is  the  end  yet.  We  have  barely  made 
acquaintance  with  our  possibilities ;  we  have  been  in  a  hurry  too 
great  to  cultivate  them.  Our  population  has  increased  in  a  genera- 
tion from  forty  millions  to  eighty  millions,  and  our  resources  are 
quite  capable  of  supporting  ten  times  that  number.  There  are 
undiscovered  possibilities  of  wealth  residing  in  our  fields,  our 
forests,  our  mountains,  and  our  seas,  greater  than  any  past  devel- 
opment, but  they  will  yield  their  returns  only  to  scientific  treat- 
ment and  economic  principles.  This  is  the  problem  that  now  con- 
cerns our  industrial  world,  and  for  the  solution  of  which  it 
rightly  looks  for  help  to  the  schools. 

Before  going  further,  let  us  limit  the  boundaries  of  this  dis- 
cussion. It  has  already  been  hinted  at  in  the  interrogations  put 
at  the  beginning  of  the  paper.  The  colleges  and  universities,  the 
professional  and  technical  schools  of  the  United  States  are  the 
equal  of  any  in  the  world,  and  are  doing  their  work  in  a  satisfac- 
tory manner.  Our  lawyers,  our  doctors, — some  of  our  teachers, 
those  who  have  the  proper  training, — and  in  particular,  our  engi- 
neers, command  the  respect  of  the  world,  and  are  as  advanced  as 
the  knowledge  of  our  age  permits.  Our  immediate  problem  lies 
with  the  training  of  those  between  the  ages  of  twelve  and  twenty, 
and  the  efficient  equipment  of  the  non-commissioned  officers  in  the 
great  army  of  industry  for  their  leadership  of  the  rank  and  file. 

It  is  permitted  to  profit  by  the  experience  of  others,  and  what 
our  natural  riches  have  caused  us  to  neglect,  necessity  has  forced 
other  nations  to  adopt.  So  well  have  their  efforts  succeeded  that 
we  find  them  dangerous  in  the  competition  in  spite  of  their  handi- 
cap. Notable,  of  course,  are  Germany  and  France,  and  in  this  brief 
survey  of  the  efforts  of  these  countries  to  improve  the  effective 
training  of  their  youth,  I  shall  draw  at  will  from  the  excellent 
consular  reports  made  to  the  Department  of  Commerce  and  Labor 
during  the  last  two  years,  and  from  our  own  observation  of  the 
exhibits  of  these  nations  at  Paris  in  1900,  and  St.  Louis  in  1904. 

At  the  close  of  the  war  of  1870,  Germany's  position  in  the 
commercial  world  was,  like  her  political  unity,  at  its  beginning. 
It  is  not  a  country  rich  in  natural  resources,  nor  particularly 
favored  for  exchange ;  the  people  are  not  especially  inventive ;  it 


108  N  Lewis  and  Clark  Educational  Congress. 

has  enjoyed  peace,  but  not  security,  and  has  been  burdened  with 
the  most  expensive  standing  army  in  the  world.  Yet  within  this 
period  she  has  come  to  challenge  England,  France,  and  the  United 
States  in  the  very  industries  in  which  they  are  strongest.  There 
are  three  reasons  for  this  in  Germany's  case :  the  government,  the 
people,  and  the  schools.  The  former  has  never  lost  an  opportunity 
to  foster  its  industries  and  labor,  hence  a  carefully  constructed 
tariff,  a  state  system  of  industrial  insurance  which  combines  state 
aid,  compulsory  thrift,  and  employer's  liability ;  factory  legislation 
which  protects  employes  and  does  not  hamper  production ;  a 
closely  articulated  school  system,  and  other  minor  details.  The 
German  people  are  devoted  to  systematized  work.  The  employer 
is  vigilant  and  active;  they  send  young  men  away  to  learn,  they 
bring  instructors  to  the  factory ;  they  encourage  skill  and  research, 
and  support  innumerable  institutions  for  the  people's  welfare. 
The  working  classes,  on  their  part,  are  exemplary  in  conduct, 
and  as  a  rule  content,  notwithstanding  evidences  of  social  unrest 
which  crop  out  at  occasional  elections  of  the  Reichstag.  The  doc- 
trine of  do  as  little  as  you  can  and  get  as  much  as  you  can  for  it, 
has  not  met  with  a  favorable  response.  An  article  in  the  London 
Times  describes  the  remarkable  success  of  a  new  novel  entitled 
"Jorn  Uhl."  It  is  a  story  of  simple  peasant  life,  by  a  country  pas- 
tor, and  the  moral  is  summed  up  by  the  old  farm  housekeeper  as 
the  peasants  trudge  home  after  hearing  a  sermon — "Well,  I  sup- 
pose we  must  go  on  working  till  the  evening,  and  be  as  good  and 
kind  as  we  can."  That  this  book — the  very  antithesis  to  every- 
thing in  modern  literature — should  have  taken  the  German  public 
by  storm  is  of  no  little  significance  in  determining  that  great  fac- 
tor of  industrial  progress — the  content  of  the  workman.  And 
here,  by  way  of  comparison,  I  can  see  no  immediate  prospect  of 
hope  in  the  United  States.  Contentment  is  a  word  not  in  the 
lexicon  of  American  labor ;  and  the  unrest  engendered  by  possible 
political  preferment,  and  by  the  chances  of  sudden  wealth;  the 
discontent  aroused  by  the  accumulation  of  vast  fortunes  and  the 
envy  of  successful  speculations,  preclude  a  growth  of  pride  in 
long  continuance  in  an  occupation.  For  this  condition  there  will 
come  no  relief  till  our  country  has  become  so  thoroughly  settled, 
and  its  resources  so  completely  under  control,  that  the  unexpected 
ceases  to  be  the  rule.  This  fact  will  vex  our  growth  for  many 
years  to  come. 

The  third  and  predominant  factor  in  German  progress  is  the 
schools.  The  school  system  of  Prussia,  with  its  compulsory  at- 
tendance laws,  enforced  to  such  an  extent  that  in  1903,  out  of 
5,754,000  children  of  school  age  only  548  were  unaccounted  for, 
is  well  known, — as  are  also  the  scope  of  the  realschulen  and  gym- 
nasia ;  we  need  to  consider  only  the  schools  established  for  special 
draining  for  industrial  arts  and  commercial  practice.  Since  Von 


Future  Industrial  and  Commercial  Development.         109 

Liebig's  example,  nearly  fifty  years  ago,  of  conducting  a  great 
laboratory  for  the  training  of  practical  chemists,  from  which 
sprang  a  small  army  of  young  chemists  who  have  made  applied 
chemistry  the  most  vigorous  and  successful  of  Germany's  indus- 
tries, both  the  state  and  local  authorities  have  been  firmly  wedded 
to  the  policy  of  maintaining  advanced  'schools  for  scientific  study 
in  every  phase  of  industry.  To  recur  to  the  chemical  illustration, 
it  is  estimated  that  over  seven  thousand  chemists  are  working  in 
municipal,  private,  or  corporate  laboratories,  carrying  on  original 
research  for  small  salaries  and  an  interest  in  any  discoveries  of 
value  they  may  make.  As  a  result  the  country  controls  the  lucra- 
tive trade  in  inorganic  and  carbon  compounds.  The  careful  anal- 
ysis of  soils  and  skillful  manufacture  of  fertilizers  to  supply  the 
lacking  elements  have  practically  reorganized  the  methods  of 
agriculture.  For  example,  the  percentage  of  sugar  in  the  sugar 
beet  has  thus  been  raised  from  5J  per  cent  to  13  per  cent,  and  a 
moribund  industry  put  on  a  paying  basis.  There  is  no  need  to 
multiply  specific  examples.  Similarly,  to  quote  from  the  report 
of  Consul-General  Mason:  "In  the  iron  and  steel  manufacture, 
and  in  the  whole  long,  varied  schedule  of  textile  production,  it  is 
only  the  possession  of  a  vast  army  of  skilled  chemists,  metal- 
lurgists, designers,  dyers,  weavers,  and  spinners,  recruited  year 
by  year  from  graduates  of  the  universities  and  technical  and  indus- 
trial art  schools,  and  backed  by  salesmen  and  merchants  elabor- 
ately educated  and  trained  for  commercial  work  in  foreign  coun- 
tries, that  has  enabled  Germany  practically  to  monopolize  certain 
special  forms  of  manufacture,  and,  despite  limited  natural  re- 
sources, to  conquer  and  maintain  a  place  in  the  front  rank  of 
industrial  nations." 

Not  all  the  larger  institutes  are  state  supported,  but  are  more 
often  maintained  by  the  joint  efforts  of  state,  municipality  and 
chambers  of  commerce.  A  fair  type  is  the  Zittau  Technical  Insti- 
tute, established  for  the  benefit  of  the  textile  industries  of  that 
part  of  Germany.  Its  purpose  is  to  produce  superintendents, 
managers,  overseers,  foremen,  designers,  etc.,  by  means  of  prac- 
tical and  theoretical  instruction.  The  courses  of  study  cover 
one  and  a  half  or  two  years.  The  tuition  is  nominal,  ranging  from 
$2.50  per  year  in  the  evening  classes,  to  $47.50  in  the  higher  day 
classes.  Drawing,  arithmetic,  bookkeeping,  geography,  and  one 
foreign  language,  preferably  English,  are  the  chief  subjects  taught 
outside  of  the  practice  work  of  the  trade.  This  school  covers  a 
higher  field  than  the  hundreds  of  continuation  and  technical 
schools  with  which  Germany  is  dotted,  and  is  comparable  more 
directly  with  the  Lowell  Institute  of  Massachusetts,  which  aims 
to  turn  ort  foremen  and  superintendents  for  the  textile  industry. 

The  basis  of  Germany's  great  progress  has  included  commer- 
*  cial  schools  as  well  as  industrial.  Their  number  has  increased 


110  Lewis  and  Clark  Educational  Congress. 

enormously  in  the  past  few  years,  and  those  of  you  who  were  at 
the  St.  Louis  exposition  last  year  may  recall  the  remarkable 
exhibit  of  these  schools.  They  are,  generally  speaking,  of  three 
grades :  the  continuation  school,  the  secondary  school,  and  the 
school  for  higher  instruction.  The  first  named'  are  intended  for 
apprentices  and  boys  who  can  spend  a  few  hours  per  day  at  school ; 
the  course  is  usually  planned  for  three  years,  and  includes  com- 
mercial calculations,  geography,  correspondence,  bookkeeping, 
stenography,  and  two  foreign  languages.  The  municipal  commer- 
cial high  school  at  Cologne,  founded  in  1900,  has  a  six-year  course 
covering  the  ages  of  ten  to  sixteen,  and  adds  to  the  above  subjects, 
algebra,  geometry,  natural  sciences,  history,  law,  French  for  six 
years,  and  English  for  three.  The  higher  institutions,  of  which 
the  Academy  of  Social  and  Commercial  Science,  founded  at 
Frankfort-on-the-Main,  in  1901,  is  the  foremost  type,  has  a  distinct 
purpose,  and  aims  to  provide  instruction  on  commercial,  economic 
and  political  matters  to  merchants,  bank  officials,  consular  offi- 
cers in  particular,  secretaries  of  boards  and  chambers  of  com- 
merce, etc.  Its  lecture  courses  contain  every  topic  of  commercial 
and  national  interest.  Entrance  to  the  school  requires  certain 
qualifications,  and  ample  opportunity  is  given  for  a  thorough 
understanding  of  the  social  and  economic  principles  of  the  day. 
Seven  more  of  these  commercial  universities  are  contemplated  for 
the  very  near  future. 

So  much  time  has  been  taken  in  describing  the  methods  of  the 
Germans,  who  have  gone  into  the  matter  with  their  characteristic 
thoroughness,  that  but  few  words  can  be  said  of  France,  Belgium 
and  other  nations.  The  industrial  and  commercial  education  of 
France  is  the  outcome  of  twenty  years  of  statutory  enactments 
following  appeals  from  the  chambers  of  commerce,  based  upon 
the  decline  of  technical  skill  in  French  industries.  The  decree  of 
1892  put  the  ecoles  pratiques  de  commerce  et  d' Industrie  directly 
under  the  jurisdiction  of  the  minister  of  commerce  and  industries, 
and  they  have  been  widely  established  and  carefully  fostered  ever 
since.  They  aim  to  furnish  clerks  and  workmen  ready  to  take 
their  places  in  the  counting-room  and  workshop.  And,  I  may  say 
in  passing,  that  an  arrangement  has  been  made  with  the  trades 
unions  of  France  whereby  credit,  sometimes  full,  is  given  on  the 
period  of  apprenticeship.  Some  such  arrangement  will  have  to 
be  made  in  this  country,  but  at  present  it  looks  as  though  it  would 
be  a  difficult  task. 

The  primary  schools  of  France,  under  the  ministry  of  public 
instruction,  continue  as  heretofore  to  give  a  certain  amount  of 
technical  instruction  as  a  preparation  for  apprenticeship.  The 
training  in  all  of  these  schools  is  practical  and  thorough,  and  some 
of  the  products  on  exhibition  at  Paris  and  St.  Louis  were  not 
to  be  distinguished  from  the  work  of  skilled  labor. 


Future  Industrial  and  Commercial  Development.         Ill 

In  Belgium,  to  quote  the  words  of  the  Directeur  General  of 
higher  education,  in  a  letter  written  to  the  speaker,  "the  adminis- 
trative energy  of  the  government  in  recent  years  has  been  turned 
to  the  practical  realization  of  what  is  considered  in  Belgium  the 
imperative  law  of  modern  pedagogy,  I'ecole  de  la  vie,"  which  may 
be  liberally  translated  as  school  training  for  the  necessary  work 
-of  life. 

There  is  no  need  of  multiplying  foreign  examples.  The  ten- 
dency and  its  causes  are  evident,  the  results  are  easily  noted.  We 
are  chiefly  concerned  with  the  extent  and  the  manner  in  which 
their  experience  may  benefit  us.  In  comparing  the  educational 
systems  of  France,  Germany  and  other  nations  with  that  of  the 
United  States,  one  condition  must  always  be  in  mind,  and  that  is 
the  maintenance  under  government  supervision  of  a  dual  system 
of  schools,  parallel  so  far  as  the  ages  of  the  children  are  concerned, 
but  one  designed  to  lead  to  the  trades  and  industries,  and  the 
other  to  the  cultural  professions  and  occupations.  The  former  is 
free  for  all  children,  the  latter  requires  tuition.  The  former  is 
avowedly  planned  to  give  a  superior  training  for  the  crafts  and  to 
perpetuate  class  distinctions  and  hereditary  occupations;  the  latter 
is  the  continuation  of  the  time-honored  humanities  adapted  to 
modern  theories.  The  primary  schools  of  France,  Belgium  and 
Italy,  and  the  realschulen  of  Germany  are  of  the  first  class  and 
carry  the  training  of  children  from  the  ages  of  five  and  six  to 
fourteen  and  fifteen,  and  dismiss  them  into  the  trades  with  con- 
siderable credit  towards  their  term  of  apprenticeship.  The  sec- 
ondary schools  and  the  gymnasia  of  the  same  countries  instruct 
children  between  five  and  sixteen,  generally  speaking,  and  prepare 
for  the  universities  and  technical  schools. 

This  policy  of  one  kind  of  training  for  the  working  classes 
and  another  for  the  professional  and  leisure  classes  is  repugnant 
to  American  ideas,  and  totally  at  variance  with  the  theory  of  our 
beginning  and  our  development.  It  can  never  be  introduced  into 
our  educational  system  so  long  as  our  public  policy  is  based  upon 
the  glorious  and  true  principle,  contained  in  our  great  magna 
charta,  of  equal  opportunities  for  all  to  advance  in  accordance 
with  their  ability  and  deserts.  There  can  be  no  dissent  from  this 
principle,  to  be  an  American.  Hence  our  educational  policy,  lest  it 
might  seem  to  waver  an  iota  from  the  rigid  letter  of  the  principle, 
has  prescribed  the  same  training  for  all  alike.  The  fault  is  not  with 
the  principle — but  with  ourselves  in  its  application.  It  was  never 
the  intention  of  the  fathers  of  our  country  to  maintain  that  its  citi- 
zens were  equal  in  any  respect  but  in  their  status  before  the  laws  of 
God  and  man.  The  natural  law,  which  is  the  law  of  God  if  you 
will,  of  differentiation  of  types  and  species,  cannot  be  set  aside 
by  any  document,  however  formal ;  and  the  makers  of  the  Declara- 


112  Lewis  and  Clark  Educational  Congress. 

tion  of  Independence  would  be  more  surprised  than  any  one,  could 
they  know  it  had  ever  been  construed  otherwise. 

But  there  are  a  few  facts  with  which  we  sum  up,  all  implied 
in  the  foregoing  discussion,  which  bear  so  directly  upon  the  situa- 
tion as  to  be  conclusive : 

First,  this  country  has  grown  so  large  and  its  needs  are  so 
varied  that  it  is  impracticable  to  train  all  children  alike;  second, 
we  are  in  duty  bound  to  afford  an  opportunity  to  the  vast  majority 
who  live  by  manual  labor  to  fit  themselves  as  well  as  possible  for 
their  work;  third,  our  commercial  and  industrial  supremacy  de- 
pends upon  high  efficiency  in  every  part  of  its  complex  organism, 
and  the  schools  must  furnish  the  means;  fourth,  the  changes  in 
curriculum  which  are  thus  involved  must  leave  to  the  pupil,  or  his 
parents,  the  absolute  choice  which  preference  may  inspire,  or  lim- 
itations of  fortune  or  lack  of  ability  compel. 

It  is  one  thing  to  diagnose  a  condition,  another  to  prescribe. 
Happily,  our  country  is  so  large  that  in  one  part  or  another  we 
may  always  find  a  trial  under  way  from  which  we  may  derive  in- 
formation. The  point  is  to  force  a  thorough  appreciation  of  the 
subject  on  public  attention  and  cause  all  to  do  what  one  may  be  do- 
ing ;  to  bring  every  municipality  to  do  what  one  may  be  doing  well. 
It  does  not  seem  advisable  materially  to  disturb  the  eight-year  ele- 
mentary course.  Its  mind-informing  and  mind-developing  foun- 
dations are  a  necessity  for ( good  citizenship,  whatever  vocation 
the  pupil  chooses  to  follow.  In  the  seventh  and  eighth  grades  a 
special  elective  manual  training  course  might  be  given,  or  more 
manual  training  introduced,  which  would  not  interfere  with  the 
cultural  studies,  and  be  of  value  not  only  for  objective  training, 
but  for  the  process  of  selection. 

.  But  in  the  secondary  school  work,  between  the  ages  of  four- 
teen and  eighteen,  that  most  dangerous  period  of  life  when  self- 
supporting  and  self-respecting  work  is  a  necessity,  the  greater 
changes  must  come.  These  changes  to  be  effective  must  include 
the  systematic  organization  of  a  class  of  schools  available  for 
those  who  are  at  work,  as  well  as  for  those  who  are  preparing  for 
work.  Manual  training  high  schools,  and  commercial  high  schools, 
are  being  established  in  many  cities  of  the  country,  notably  New 
York,  Philadelphia,  Chicago,  St.  Louis,  and  Kansas  City.  The 
work  of  the  commercial  high  schools,  if  based  upon  the  recommen- 
dations of  the  special  committee  from  the  Business  Department  of 
the  National  Educational  Association,  will  undoubtedly  meet  our 
present  wants,  supplemented,  as  they  are,  by  commercial  depart- 
ments in  universities.  It  will  at  least  do  for  a  beginning.  The 
manual  training  high  schools  as  existing  in  many  cities  will  not 
meet  the  demand  made  upon  them  by  industrial  conditions,  nor 
can  I  see  that  they  were  designed  to.  They  are  usually  for  the 
purpose  of  fitting  more  completely  for  entrance  to  higher  technical 


Future  Industrial  and  Commercial  Development.         113 

schools,  rather  than  for  entrance  to  the  trades  and  crafts,  and  so 
fail  to  meet  the  wants  of  the  many.  It  seems  imperative,  therefore, 
to  establish  in  every  city  and  town  of  a  size  to  warrant  it,  and  in 
questions  of  size  the  school  should  have  the  benefit  of  the  doubt, 
a  municipal  technical  or  trade  school  under  control  of  the  city 
authorities,  or,  if  found  advisable,  under  joint  control  of  the 
municipality  and  the  board  of  trade.  The  school  should  be  fully 
equipped  for  practical  work  and  an  independent  evening  course 
maintained ;  tuition  should  be  free,  or  only  a  nominal  charge.  In 
short,  what  is  being  done  tentatively  in  a  few  cities,  and  often 
under  private  auspices,  should  be  undertaken  as  a  public  obliga- 
tion, not  only  in  justice  to  the  ninety  and  nine,  but,  if  you  please, 
as  a  solid  business  investment  for  the  account  of  the  nation. 

I  have  not  touched  upon  the  great  value  to  better  citizenship 
which  these  schools  would  give.  That  is  self-evident.  The  social 
fabric  would  benefit  quite  as  much  as  the  industrial.  Nor  have  I 
anticipated  the  objections  of  those  who  will  advise  leaving  well 
enough  alone,  and  tell  us  that  we  are  getting  along  very  well  now. 
It  is  a  good  plan  to  have  your  fuel  ready  before  the  call  for 
extra  steam  is  heard.  The  only  point  urged  is  one  of  judicious 
preparation  for  an  inevitable  demand,  and  the  fact  that  it  accords 
with  our  standards  and  ideals.  The  ideal  of  American  citizenship 
is  high,  because  based  upon  that  highest  appeal  to  action:  equal 
opportunity  for  all.  We  do  not  expect  all  men  to  be  leaders  and 
guides ;  there  must  always  be  hewers  of  wood  and  drawers  of 
water;  but  the  state  will  have  discharged  its  full  obligations  as 
the  protector  of  society,  only  when  it  presents  to  all  a  training 
•within  reach,  through  which  may  be  diffused  a  general  knowledge 
and  a  respect  for  right,  which  will  alike  secure  our  land  from 
open  attack  or  the  insiduous  undermining  of  vice. 


EDUCATION  AND  THE  STATE. 
By  P.  L.  CAMPBELL. 

The  most  remarkable  result  of  a  century  of  free  government 
is  not  found  in  the  expansion  of  territory  and  enormous  growth 
in  wealth,  of  which  we  so  frequently  and  so  justly  boast,  but  in 
the  tremendous  strides  taken  by  democracy  within  the  same  period. 
How  doubtful  the  fathers  of  the  republic  were  of  the  extent  to 
which  the  common  people  can  be  trusted  is  well  shown  by  the 
safeguards  which  they  threw  around  the  election  of  the  president 
of  the  United  States  and  of  the  members  of  the  senate.  They 
were  too  newly  come  from  aristocratic  and  monarchical  institu- 
tions to  accept  fully  in  practice  the  inspiring  theories  of  equality 
about  which  they  so  fluently  wrote  and  declaimed.  It  was  one 


114  Lewis  and  Clark  Educational  Congress. 

thing  to  proclaim  to  the  world  that  all  men  are  born  free  and 
equal,  and  quite  another  to  place  their  lives  and  property  subject 
to  the  command  of  a  government  wholly  based  on  the  unrestricted 
will  of  the  people. 

So  electors  were  to  be  chosen  who  in  their  wisdom  were  to 
select  a  good  man  and  true  as  chief  executive;  and  the  senators 
were  to  be  the  safe  choice  of  that  better  part  of  the  people  who 
might  be  elected  as  legislators  in  the  various  states. 

But  democracy  was  not  slow  to  assert  itself  in  the  selection 
of  a  president,  practically  dictating  to  the  electors  who  their  choice 
should  be;  and  the  irony  of  recent  history  has  shown  how  wise 
was  the  aristocratic  method  of  election  of  senators  as  compared 
with  the  democratic  selection  of  the  members  of  the  house. 

With  the  growth  of  enlightenment  we  have  come  to  realize 
how  glorious  a  thing  freedom  is,  and  how  it  may  develop  a  citi- 
zenship that  may  more  safely  be  trusted  in  the  mass  than  any 
restricted  body  of  temporarily  constituted  guardians,  subject  to 
the  temptations  of  practically  unrestricted  power. 

The  organization  of  machine  government  in  city,  state,  and 
nation  called  aloud  for  a  remedy,  and  the  great  common  people, 
grown  conscious  of  their  power  and  confident  of  its  use,  have 
steadily  been  taking  over  more  and  more  of  the  real  control  into 
their  own  hands. 

So  everywhere  we  see  the  movement  toward  election  of 
United  States  senators  by  vote  of  the  people,  nomination  by  direct 
primaries,  initiative  in  legislation,  chastened  by  the  milder  form 
of  referendum  when  the  laws  made  by  representative  bodies  are 
not  acceptable  to  their  constituencies. 

This  tendency  expresses  a  deep  conviction  as  to  the  fairness 
and  trustworthiness  of  the  people  as  a  whole.  In  our  own  state 
and  a  few  sister  states  practically  the  ultimate  steps,  those  of 
direct  nomination  and  of  direct  legislation,  have  been  taken,  and 
we  are  today  living  under  a  form  of  government  the  most  demo- 
cratic in  fact  that  the  world  has  ever  known. 

The  old  machinery  of  legislation  is  retained,  but  the  spirit 
of  it  is  controlled  by  the  certainty  of  a  referendum  if  the  laws 
do  not  conform  to  the  will  of  the  people.  No  refusal  to  grant  leg- 
islation demanded  by  the  people  can  be  effective  when  there 
remains  the  easy  redress  of  direct  legislation  by  means  of  the 
initiative. 

The  government  has  become  in  fact  a  government  of  and  by 
the  people;  it  remains  to  be  seen  whether  it  shall  prove  one 
for  the  people,  in  the  sense  of  being  a  sure  guarantee  of  justice 
and  a  means  for  the  promotion  of  prosperity  and  happiness. 

It  goes  without  saying  that  all  will  depend  on  the  character 
of  the  people  themselves.  Given  a  body  of  just,  generous,  and 
capable  men,  and  there  is  little  need  of  law  either  to  restrain  or  to 


Education  and  the  State.  115 

stimulate.  Law  is,  after  all,  only  a  device  of  society  to  bolster  up 
its  least  efficient  members.  A  state  composed  wholly  of  good  and 
enlightened  citizens  certainly  would  not  be  in  danger  of  misman- 
aging its  own  affairs. 

But,  unfortunately,  common  experience  teaches  us  that  we 
cannot  always  depend  on  all  our  fellow  citzens'  being  good  and 
enlightened,  and  the  measure  of  the  danger  in  this  government 
of  ours  of  today  is  found  in  the  proportion  that  may  exist  between 
the  unenlightened  and  the  enlightened,  between  the  bad  and  the 
good.  If  education  were  "ever  in  demand  to  insure  safety  and 
prosperity,  it  is  today,  when  every  vital  interest  of  the  community, 
and  so  of  the  individual,  is  placed  directly  in  the  hands  of  a  bare 
majority  of  our  fellow  citizens. 

And  even  a  most  insignificant  minority  may  disturb  existing 
conditions  or  delay  progress  by  proposing  new  laws  or  calling  in 
question  those  already  passed.  From  the  standpoint  of  the  vital 
interests  of  the  state,  and  of  the  individual  within  the  state,  there 
is  no  longer  any  negligible  part  of  our  population.  Our  individ- 
ual safety  and  happiness  depend  on  the  enlightenment  and  trust- 
worthiness of  all. 

To  commit  ourselves  to  such  a  form  of  government  is  one 
of  the  most  magnificent  declarations  ever  made  of  high  faith  in 
humanity  and  in  the  immeasurable  possibilities  of  education.  If 
we  are  to  make  good  this  faith,  we  must  apply  ourselves  as  never 
before  to  the  task  of  turning  the  light  into  the  dark  places  and 
of  building  strength  and  goodness  into  the  characters  of  our  fel- 
low men.  Out  of  our  danger  may  come  our  safety,  if  we  but 
realize  the  supreme  importance  of  the  work  to  be  done.  It  is 
the  paying  attention  to  things  that  is  always  the  surest  safeguard, 
and  there  is  nothing  to  make  us  pay  attention  like  an  imminent 
risk. 

But  the  argument  for  education  by  the  state  is  by  no  means 
solely  on  the  ground  of  averting  danger.  If  it  were  so,  many 
who  are  callous  to  risk  would  be  unmoved,  and  the  state  might 
swing  along  to  destruction  without  their  apathy's  ever  being  over- 
come. But  in  a  commercial  age,  the  argument  of  gain  is  not  apt 
to  fall  on  dull  ears  anywhere. 

We  are  growing  to  realize  more  and  more  every  day  the 
enormous  money  value  of  education,  and  to  understand  that  the 
chief  asset  of  the  state  is  the  trained  intellect  that  it  contains. 
What  were  all  our  unlimited  resources  in  mine,  in  timber,  in  agri- 
culture, were  it  not  for  the  brains  that  convert  them  into  wealth  ? 
They  were  here  before  the  coming  of  the  white  man,  but  to  the 
ignorant  savage  they  were  locked  storehouses,  and  he  dwelt  in 
poverty  and  distress  in  the  midst  of  potential  plenty. 

And  now,  since  production  has  become  more  a  matter  of 
brain  than  of  brawn,  since  the  forces  of  nature  have  been  har- 


116  Lewis  and  Clark  Educational  Congress. 

nessed  to  the  machinery  of  manufacture,  and  keen  intelligence 
and  high  skill  ar.e  required  for  the  performance  of  the  duties 
of  even  common  labor,  the  market  value  of  education  is  recognized 
as  never  before. 

Listen  to  the  statistics  furnished  by  a  most  reliable  authority, 
Mr.  James  M.  Dodge,  of  the  American  Society  of  Mechanical 
Engineers,  as  to  the  comparative  money  value  of  the  trained  and 
the  untrained : 

The  boy  who  leaves  school  at  fourteen  and  goes  directly 
to  manual  labor,  maximum  wages,  $500  per  year,  maximum 
reached  at  twenty-two  years ;  the  apprentice  boy,  serving  full  time 
at  his  trade  after  leaving  the  public  school,  maximum  wages, 
$750  per  year,  maximum  reached  at  twenty- four  years;  trade 
school  boy,  who  takes  his  training  of  three  years  in  the  technical 
school  after  leaving  the  public  school,  maximum  wages,  $1,250 
per  year,  with  maximum  reached  at  thirty  years  of  age ;  and  last, 
the  college-trained  engineer,  completing  a  full  four  years'  profes- 
sional course  after  leaving  the  high  school,  average  salary  at 
thirty  years  of  age,  $2,000,  with  maximum  earning  unfixed, 
growing  steadily  in  ability  and  usefulness  through  the  greater 
part  of  his  life. 

Between  the  unskilled  manual  laborer  and  the  highly  trained 
engineer  there  is  a  difference  in  earning  capacity  of  $1,500  per 
year,  which  means  a  difference  in  productive  ability  of  that  amount 
as  a  minimum;  for  in  the  long  run,  wages  must  measure  the 
minimum  productive  power  of  the  employe,  if  the  employer  is 
long  to  be  able  to  continue  in  business.  The  employe  must  give 
back  at  least  as  much  as  he  receives,  or  his  employer  fails. 

Education,  then,  has  enabled  a  citizen  to  add  to  the  wealth 
of  the  state  at  least  $1,500  per  year  more  than  he  could  have  added 
as  an  uneducated  laborer.  The  average  working  life  of  such  a 
man  is  not  less  than  twenty  years,  probably  much  more,  and  yet 
in  twenty  years  he  will  have 'added  $30,000  to  the  state's  wealth, 
its  taxable  wealth,  mind  you,  in  return  for  the  investment  of  some 
seven  or  eight  hundred  dollars,  at  the  highest  estimate,  which  the 
state  has  put  into  his  training.  Discount  the  amount  by  half,  and 
yet  we  find  such  a  percentage  of  profit  as  is  found  in  few  other 
investments. 

We  have  the  actual  demonstration  of  results  in  the  enormous 
wealth  which  this  country  of  ours  has  accumulated,  counted  now 
in  units  of  billions  instead  of  millions.  Why  have  our  engineers 
taken  rank  above  those  of  all  other  countries,  and  why  have  our 
manufacturers  invaded  the  markets  of  the  world?  Why  has  our 
country  become  the  strongest  money  power  on  earth?  We  have 
been  told  by  those  who  have  visited  us  to  find  an  answer  to  these 
very  questions,  that  the  explanation  is  largely  found  in  the  excel- 
lence and  extent  of  our  educational  system.  Without  a  high  level 


Education  and  the  State.  117 

of  intelligence  and  skill,  who  dreams  that  we  could  ever  have 
reached  our  present  commanding  position,  or  could  hope  to  retain 
it  ?  The  best  investment,  in  mere  cash  returns,  our  states  have  ever 
made  is  found  in  the  appropriations  made  for  public  education. 

I  pass  over  all  the  higher  values  in  civilization  and  culture, 
for  these  are  readily  granted,  and  dwell  for  the  present  on  the 
enormous  economic  gains  which  have  come  to  the  state  through 
education. 

With  returns  on  our  past  investments  beyond  our  wildest 
dreams,  why  should  we  hesitate  to  invest,  even  as  a  purely  busi- 
ness venture,  still  larger  sums  in  education?  We  boast  of  our 
great  expenditures  for  public  schools  in  comparison  with  the  ex- 
penditures of  other  nations;  but  how  inadequate  they  are,  after 
all,  in  comparison  with  the  importance  of  the  work  to  be 
done.  For  our  entire  public  educational  system  we  spend  approxi- 
mately three  dollars  per  capita  of  our  entire  population,  and  for 
the  secondary  and  collegiate  part  of  it  we  are  spending  about 
35  cents  per  capita. 

We  have  16,000,000  children  in  our  public  schools,  but  only 
1,500,000  of  them  get  beyond  the  fifth  grade,  and  about  600,000 
of  them  enter  the  high  school.  Only  one-half  of  1  per  cent  of  the 
total  number  ever  enter  college.  And  yet  we  frequently  hear 
dire  prophesies  of  evil  results  to  come  from  over-education. 

The  day  is  not  far  distant  when  we  will  blush,  rather,  for  the 
present  inadequacy  of  our  system.  We  shall  then  look  on  the 
high  school  course  as  being  the  standard  preparation  for  the  com- 
mon labor  of  life.  Even  today  the  stolid  laborer  of  thirty  years 
ago,  whose  only  asset  was  his  muscle,  has  been  largely  replaced 
in  factory  and  mine  by  the  keen-witted  high  school  boy,  whose 
trained  intelligence  is  worth  many  times  the  brute  strength  of 
his  predecessor. 

When  the  nation  has  grasped  more  fully  the  great  truth  that 
education  prepares  for  work,  rather  than  for  the  avoidance  of 
it — raising  it  above  the  plane  of  drudgery  and  glorifying  it  with 
interest  and  intelligence — then  shall  we  begin  to  educate  in  ear- 
nest, and  place  no  limit  to  the  extent  and  amount  of  training 
offered  to  those  who  will  avail  themselves  of  it.  The  work  of 
education  will  become  indeed  the  chief  concern  of  the  state,  and 
the  best  and  wisest  will  give  to  it  most  liberally  not  only  of  their 
means,  but  of  their  time  and  thought  as  well. 

And  what  will  be  the  nature  of  this  more  fully  developed 
educational  system?  Merely  the  realization  of  the  old  ideals 
toward  which  wise  teachers  have  been  striving  for  generations  — 
the  development  of  the  child  to  the  full  possibilities  of  his  nature, 
physical,  intellectual,  spiritual.  We  shall  not  educate  him  merely 
that  he  shall  make  money,  though  he  should  be  able  to  make 
monev  enough  for  self-support  after  he  is  educated ;  we  shall  not 


118  Lewis  and  Clark  Educational  Congress. 

even  educate  him  that  he  shall  become  a  good  citizen,  though  he 
should  be  a  better  citizen  through  being  educated;  but  we  shall 
try  to  make  him  a  fully  developed  man,  knowing  that  to  this  high 
estate  all  other  blessings  are  added.  He  is  educated  because  God 
has  endowed  him  with  a  soul,  and  that  soul  is  the  most  valuable 
product  of  all  the  eternities  of  creation.  His  line  has  survived 
through  the  myriad  accidents  of  countless  generations.  He  is 
here,  though  millions  of  other  lines  have  become  extinct;  here, 
marking  the  highest  point  of  mundane  development,  and  con- 
taining the  hope  of  the  future  of  mankind.  Shall  we  not  see  to 
it  that  every  opportunity  is  offered  for  "a  sound  mind  in  a  sound 
body" — that  the  soul  shall  become  a  noble  one,  both  for  itself 
and  for  the  future  generations  that  shall  be  conditioned  by  it  ? 

Development  of  body,  mind  and  soul — this  is  the  perfect 
work  that  lies  before  the  larger  education  of  the  future.  Physical 
training  and  manual  training  for  strength  of  body  and  dexterity 
of  hand;  observation,  inference,  and  application  for  the  intellect; 
love  of  beauty,  truth,  and  goodness,  with  faith,  and  hope,  and 
charity,  and  reverence  for  the  soul — this  is  to  be  the  broad  pro- 
gramme of  our  public  education. 

And  the  means  ?  Well,  the  means  will  be  the  largest-souled, 
broadest-minded,  best-trained  men  and  women  of  the  state,  with 
the  amplest  equipment  for  their  work  that  money  can  supply.  The 
school  buildings  of  both  country  and  town  will  be  well  placed  in 
ample  grounds,  substantial  and  artistic  in  construction,  sanitary 
in  surroundings  and  plan. 

Much  of  the  work  will  be  done  out  of  doors,  with  real  nature 
work  as  a  center,  and  many  of  the  ills  of  mature  life  will  be  avert- 
ed by  the  healthy,  happy  life  of  the  days  spent  in  school. 

But  I  would  not  place  the  emphasis  on  surroundings  and 
equipment,  important  as  they  are,  while  the  great  fact  remains 
that  it  is  the  teacher  who  makes  the  school,  whether  in  grammar 
grades  or  university.  Though  millions  be  spent  on  our  schools 
and  there  be  no  real  men  and  women  to  put  life  and  soul  into 
them,  the  money  fails  largely  of  its  purpose. 

The  most  serious  duty  to  be  performed  by  any  school  board 
is  that  of  making  a  wise  selection  of  a  teacher.  First  of  all, 
there  should  be  soundness  of  nature — good  stuff,  well  seasoned, 
free  from  knots  and  gnarls.  The  call  to  teach  should  be  there, 
the  outcome  of  an  ardent  and  sympathetic  nature,  with  abundance 
of  knowledge  to  impart  and  great  aptness  in  imparting  it. 

Skill  should  have  been  acquired  through  long  study  of  the 
science  of  education  and  abundance  of  practice  in  the  art  of  im- 
parting it  under  efficient  supervision. 

Since  clearly  enough  in  the  work  of  education  the  teacher 
is  the  factor  of  first  importance,  it  follows  logically  that  no  pains 
should  be  spared  to  induce  the  best  men  and  women  to  enter 


Education  and  the  State.  119 

the  profession  of  teaching,  and  that  the  conditions  should  all  be 
made  such  as  to  get  the  largest  returns  from  their  labors.  Let 
the  salaries  be  made  such  as  to  provide  for  comfortable  living, 
free  from  the  worry  of  the  wolf,  never  far  from  the  door.  Let 
old  age  be  made  secure  by  an  assured  income  on  retirement  frrm 
active  service,  so  that  the  teacher's  best  energies  may  go  into  his 
work.  This  work,  when  the  best  is  given  unreservedly,  pre- 
cludes the  possibility  of  accumulating  money,  and  if  we  would 
have  it  filled  with  the  cheerfulness  and  contentment  that  assure 
the  greatest  efficiency,  we  must  free  it  from  the  haunting  spectre 
of  a  penniless  old  age. 

Why  should  we  not  place  the  great  army  of  peace  on  the 
same  footing  as  the  army  that  goes  to  war?  The  soldier  is  cared 
for  when  his  days  of  activity  are  over ;  the  teacher  is  of  no  less 
importance  to  the  nation,  nor  do  his  duties  and  his  compensation 
admit  of  greater  savings  for  his  old  age. 

Make,  then,  the  life  of  the  teacher  safe  and  attractive,  give 
to  the  profession  of  teaching  such  recognition  as  will  make  it 
more  generally  sought  by  the  most  capable  men  and  women  of  our 
times,  those  largest  of  mind  and  largest  of  soul,  and  the  most 
important  step  will  have  been  taken  toward  the  highest  develop- 
ment of  our  educational  system. 

If  the  demand  is  great  for  excellence  of  ability  in  the  pri- 
mary and  secondary  periods  of  education,  how  imperative  it  be- 
comes in  the  college  and  university.  For  here,  as  has  ever  been 
the  case  and  ever  will  be,  lie  the  forces  which  shape  the  destiny 
of  the  nation. 

More  and  more  the  university  is  coming  into  intimate,  vital 
relationship  with  every  form  of  activity  within  the  state.  It  must 
know  intimately  the  needs  of  the  state  if  it  is  to  train  to  the  best 
advantage  the  men  and  women  who  are  to  be  most  instrumental 
in  supplying  these  needs. 

Note  the  broad  and  sound  programme  of  university  activi- 
ties as  outlined  over  a  century  ago  by  Thomas  Jefferson, "founder 
of  the  University  of  Virginia,  the  first  to  see  clearly  the  place  of 
the  university  supported  by  the  state  as  the  logical  completion 
of  a  system  of  universal  education  on  which  a  democracy  might 
be  safely  based.  This  is  his  conception  of  the  functions  of  a  uni- 
versity for  the  state : 

"1.  To  form  the  statesmen,  legislators,  and  judges  on  whom 
public  prosperity  and  happiness  are  to  depend. 

"2.  To  expound  the  principles  and  structure  of  government, 
the  laws  which  regulate  the  intercourse  of  nations,  those  formed 
principally  for  our  own  government,  in  a  sound  spirit  of  legisla- 
tion, which,  banishing  all  unnecessary  restraint  on  individual  ac- 
tion, shall  leave  us  free  to  do  whatever  does  not  violate  the  equal 
rights  of  another. 


120  Lewis  and  Clark  Educational  Congress. 

"3.  To  harmonize  and  promote  the  interests  of  agriculture, 
manufactures,  and  commerce,  and  by  well  informed  views  >f 
political  economy  to  give  a  free  scope  to  the  public  industry. 

"4.  To  develop  the  reasoning  faculty  of  our  youth,  to  en- 
large their  minds,  cultivate  their  morals,  and  instill  into  them  the 
principles  of  virtue  and  order. 

"5.  To  enlighten  them  with  mathematical  and  physical  sci- 
ences, which  advance  the  arts  and  minister  to  the  health,  the  sub- 
sistence, and  the  comforts  of  human  life. 

"6.  And  generally  to  form  them  to  habits  of  reflection  and 
correct  action,  rendering  them  examples  of  virtue  to  others,  and 
of  happiness  within,  themselves." 

The  theoretical  and  the  practical;  the  idea  and  the  act;  to 
know  law  and  obey  it ;  to  grasp  the  theory  of  political  economy, 
and  to  apply  it  for  the  nation's  betterment.  The  university,  as 
Jefferson  plans  it,  is  to  train  the  practical  idealist.  The  student 
is  to  simplify  life  by  learning  things  in  their  relationships ;  to  rise 
to  a  comprehension  of  principles,  and  thus  give  an  orderly  arrange- 
ment to  the  seemingly  endless  complexities  of  everyday  experience. 
Thinking  gains  in  simplicity  as  it  rises. 

So  the  university  must  remain  idealistic,  in  the  sense  that 
the  plan  must  be  comprehended  before  action  is  undertaken — and 
the  highest  plan  is  that  of  life  and  thought  itself.  But  the  plan 
is  only  the  beginning ;  it  exists  for  the  sake  of  its  own  accomplish- 
ment. Therefore  the  university  must  give  intimate  knowledge 
of  the  conditions  under  which  the  accomplishment  takes  place, 
in  other  words,  of  the  world  as  it  is ;  and  also  it  must  give  great 
skill  in  actual  performance,  so  that  the  largest  practical  results 
may  be  most  easily  and  economically  attained.  Library  and  labor- 
atory, seminary  and  field  work,  philosophy  and  engineering,  all 
these  go  to  the  making  up  of  the  modern  university  of  the  state. 
In  it  should  be  found  the  opportunity  for  every  citizen  of  the 
state  to  secure  the  highest  training  in  the  vocation  to  which  he 
is  called — training  broadly  generalized  into  literature,  philosophy, 
and  art,  science  and  engineering,  and  the  old-time  learned  profes- 
sions. 

But  the  state  is  no  longer  content  to  stop  with  a  system  of 
education  limited  to  its  regularly  organized  schools.  A  broader 
democracy  needs  a  broader  education,  and  if  each  citizen  is  to 
participate  directly  in  the  function  of  legislation,  it  becomes  an 
urgent  necessity  that  his  education  be  continued  through  life.  He 
must  be  kept  constantly  aware  of  changing  conditions,  he  must 
be  fitted  to  meet  each  new  problem  as  it  arises,  he  must  grow  a 
wiser  and  safer  legislator  with  each  passing  year.  And  so  the 
state  is  extending  its  activities  by  means  of  the  great  public 
library  movement  of  recent  times,  with  its  highly  organized  meth- 
ods of  stimulating  and  directing  the  reading  of  the  great  body 


Education  and  the  State.  121 

of  the  common  people.  Only  second,  in  importance  now  is  the 
public  library  to  the  public  school,  and  it  seems  a  question  how 
long  it  may  remain  in  second  place. 

There  is  nothing  more  remarkable  in  the  history  of  popular 
education  than  the  marvelously  rapid  growth  of  public  libraries. 

Within  the  twelve  years  between  1891  and  1903  the  number 
of  public  libraries  supported  by  taxation  increased  from  879  to 
3,148,  and  the  rate  of  increase  grows  greater  each  year.  In  the 
United  States  today  we  have  in  all  libraries  of  1,000  volumes  and 
over  the  tremendous  aggregate  of  more  than  54,000,000  books,  of 
which  by  far  the  greater  part  are  directly  accessible  to  the  general 
public. 

But  in  reality  we  are  only  in  the  beginning  of  the  library 
movement.  When  every  town  and  village  has  its  public  library, 
when  a  system  of  distribution  throughout  the  country  districts  is 
m'ade  possible  through  a  parcels  post,  when  great  central  state 
libraries  place  at  the  command  of  every  citizen,  at  telephone  call 
if  you  will,  the  detailed  and  accurate  statement  of  the  experience 
of  the  whole  world  in  every  department  of  human  activity — then 
will  the  higher  education  of  the  people,  the  education  that  follows 
school,  be  carried  on  broadly  and  effectively  through  the  medium 
of  the  wisely  organized  and  skillfully  directed  reading  of  books. 

In  conclusion,  what  is  the  ideal  of  government  toward  which 
we  are  making  with  this  vast  system  of  public  education?  In 
answer  I  would  say,  one  in  which,  through  general  enlightenment 
and  development  of  sound  character,  it  may  be  possible  to  have 
a  minimum  of  external  restraint  and  a  maximum  of  internal 
sense  of  obligation.  This  would  be  the  highest  type  of  free  gov- 
ernment, one  in  which  each  citizen  knows  the  right  and  willingly 
does  it.  Toward  such  real  freedom  it  is  the  high  privilege  of 
America  to  lead  the  way. 


Sntiex 


PAGES 

Program  7  to  8 

Convocation  Address 9  to  23 

William   T.  Harris. 

Unsettled  Questions  of  the  Schools ...     24  to  40 

Andrew  S.  Draper. 

The  Relation  of  the  Pacific  Coast  to  Education  in  the 

Orient  41  to  50 

Benjamin  Ide  Wheeler. 

Education  in  a  Democracy  50  to  61 

F.  Louis  Soldan. 

School  Extension  and  Adult  Education v 62  to  75 

H.  M.  Leipziger. 

Manual  Training 75  to  77 

H.  M.  Leipziger. 

The  Problem  of  the  Rural  School 77  to  91 

J.  H.  Acker  man. 

Higher  Agricultural  Education  91  to  101 

E.  A.  Bryan. 

Education  in  Reference  to  Our  Future  Industrial  and 

Commercial  Development 102  to  112 

Howard  J.  Rogers. 

Education  and  the  State. 113  to  121 

P.  L.  Campbell. 


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